Truth about Forever
by VS pink21
Summary: Gabriella had the perfect boyfriend. She knew she loved him, what more could she ever want? When a new boy comes into her life, she has to make a decision. Should she stay with the one who has always been there? or take a chance on someone new?
1. Chapter 1

"Stop doing that!" yelled Gabriella as her boyfriend Dean jumped out from behind a clothes rack to scare her for about the 10th time that day. The fact that Gabriella was getting mad just made it that much more fun for Dean; he loved Gabriella's "mad" face.

Gabriella and Dean had been together for as long as anyone could remember. Their mothers had been best friends since high school and figured they should start their kids off right, they had no idea what would happen. Dean and Gabriella shared their first kiss at the age of 5 and it had been smooth sailing since then.

"I'm sorry! I can't help it that I love to see that gorgeous face of yours when you're pretending to be furious with me" said Dean. "You know that you could never be mad at this baby face Ella!"

"Oh please, just grab that shirt in a small for me please" said Gabriella. "Oh and just to let you know, because of that little prank of yours, you're totally buying all this for me!" she said as she held up her armful of clothing.

"I suppose, but only because I'm the best boyfriend in the world." he said, followed by a scoff from Gabriella. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" he said while giving his best pouty face.

"Oh nothing, you know I can't be mad at you pooky!" she said in her best baby voice while squeezing his cheek. She knew he hated when she called him pooky, which was really the main reason she always did. Of course right after she called him this she endured a tickle attack as her punishment, which, even though she protested, she absolutely loved.

Gabriella often found herself wondering how she ever got so lucky. Most girls search their entire lives to find someone as perfect as Dean. She was certain that he would be her first and last boyfriend and the only man she'd ever love, there was no doubt in her mind at all. If she needed any kind of reinforcement, his eyes said enough for her. She had never told him this, but she could always tell when he was lying or telling the truth by the way his eyes looked. She had shared this theory with her best friend Amy a few times, but always got the same response. Amy didn't believe Gabriella. Gabriella knew that she wouldn't because her and Dean were so close, there were things only she could pick up on.

"Can we please get out of here now? We've been here for, ooooh, forever!" whined Dean. "Don't get me wrong spending the day with you is perfect, but I'd much rather be doing something else if you know what I mean…" he said as he pulled her close to his body and gave her "the eyebrow".

"Ugh! You're such a whore sometimes!" yelled Gabriella before she pushed him away and burst into laughter. "Ok fine, I just wanna buy these two shirts and we can go back to my house. I promise we can do what you want tomorrow ok boyfriend?"

"Alright, but let me buy those for you. I don't want to get looks from the checkout lady for being a bad boyfriend again." said Dean.

"Aw aren't you just adorable?" joked Gabriella "But I think you're going to have to work a little harder to impress the checkout person, he doesn't seem to be your type hun." she said as she motioned to the tall, brown haired boy up at the counter. As she said this she couldn't help but notice his eyes. They were the most piercing blue color she'd ever seen before. She quickly looked away when she realized he was staring back at her. "Ok let's go! My mom is expecting us back to help her set up in 45 minutes, so we need to hurry."

"Alright do you want to go and start the car or do you want to come up to buy these with me?" said Dean.

"I'll just come with you, how can I seriously pull myself away from a stud muffin like you?" she said as she gave him a quick kiss. "You know, I'm pretty sure if I ever saw or heard us together I'd want to shoot myself because we're so corny." She said as she giggled.

Gabriella really meant what she said, but she knew that there was another reason for her wanting to go to the checkout with him. She felt drawn to those blue eyes. She had to get a closer look.

_Snap out of it!_ thought Gabriella _You have a boyfriend! You love __him,__ you always have and always will! Wow I'm pretty weak if a pair of bright blue eyes can make me swoon like this. Even if they are the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen __AND__ they would totally look amazing with my eyes__ and__… Oh my god! STOP!_

Gabriella snapped out of it as soon as she heard the guy in front of her say "Your total is 25.95"

"Aw Ella I only have 20 dollars can you spot me some?" said Dean. Gabriella was about to pull out her wallet when Dean nudged her saying "Just kidding! I'm not that stupid!" They both laughed, but Gabriella noticed that while her and Dean were laughing about his joke, the checkout guy was staring at her. She locked eyes with him, but he wouldn't look away.

"Alright Ella Bella we're ready to go, come on we only have 35 minutes to get back and help your mom get ready for her opening" said Dean.

"Have a nice day, Ella Bella!" said the checkout guy as he stifled a laugh.

"Uh yeah, thanks…? I'm sorry what's your name?" said Gabriella.

"My name is Troy." He said as he extended his hand to shake hers. Dean interrupted them before they ever touched.

"Yeah and I'm Dean, her boyfriend" he said a little too defensively. "Come on Elle let's go."

Gabriella grabbed Deans hand that he held out, waiting for her to hold, and began walking towards the door. She tried hard not to turn around, but felt a force that she couldn't control willing her to just steal one more glance. As she looked back she saw Troy staring back at her. She knew he would be, but the fact that she saw him doing it made her feel strangely happy. She then realized that it was obvious what she was doing and turned her attention to Dean, squeezing his hand. They walked to the car together and Dean opened the door for her. Gabriella willed herself not to look back at the store as they pulled out of the parking lot on the way back to her house.

Her thoughts kept going back to Troy the whole way home, and by the time she got back to her house he was all she could think about. _**Sa-**__**woon**__ as Amy would say._


	2. Chapter 2

Gabriella and Dean arrived at her house just before her mom's "freak out stage" had started. Gabriella's mom is a real estate agent and she was just about to open the new condominiums she had built with a big launch party at their house. They really were beautiful, and way too fancy for any normal person to afford, which is exactly how Gabriella's mom wanted it. Gabriella and her mom had never really gotten along very well, not like her and her father. Gabriella was really close to her father, up until the day he died, but even now she felt like he was always there somehow.

"Hey mom! Sorry we're cutting it so close" said Gabriella.

"Oh honey don't worry about it, we just need to work double time now to get everything finished because we're running out of time, but no it's fine!" her mother said with a fake smile so you knew she was annoyed.

"Where is the caterer Mrs. Montez?" asked Dean trying to avoid the potential fight between Gabriella and her mom.

"You know I wish I knew! They were supposed to be here about half an hour ago" said Mrs. Montez with a look of disgust on her face. The minute she finished that sentence a huge white van with a clover on it pulled into the driveway. When the van came to a screeching halt, 4 teenage kids jumped out of the back as a woman jumped out of the driver side door.

Gabriella watched them in amusement as they scrambled trying to pull everything out of the van. She loved when her mom got worked up like this. As she was watching them unload the van, someone caught her eye. She couldn't believe what she was seeing! She quickly closed her mouth, but couldn't take her eyes off of the boy carrying in boxes of food. _What are the chances!_ Gabriella thought as she watched Troy coming up the walk.

She walked as fast as she could to the door without looking suspicious. When she opened the door, she couldn't help but smile at the surprised look that was plastered on Troy's face as well.

"Are you stalking me Ella Bella?" said Troy with an adorable smile spreading across his face.

"Excuse me? You're the one who just showed up at my front door" said Gabriella.

"You know what, you're right. Sorry I just can't help myself!" Troy said, with the smile still lingering on his face as he walked past Gabriella and into the kitchen.

Gabriella was stunned at what just happened. She had to admit though, it was a good kind of stunned. She started walking back into the kitchen when she was stopped by a very pissed off Dean.

"What is he doing here?" he said.

"How am I supposed to know? I guess he's part of the catering crew. Why?" said Gabriella.

"I just don't like the guy. There's something weird about him. Not to mention the fact that he was staring at you way too much when we were at the store" said Dean angrily.

"Oh stop you think every guy is staring at me!" said Gabriella as she walked away.

"Because they are!!" yelled Dean as he went after Gabriella.

"They are what?" asked Mrs. Montez.

"Nevermind, just something we were talking about earlier. Not a big deal" said Dean.

"Good, so you can help the caterers set up the tables then?" asked Mrs. Montez.

"Sure. Come on Ella, you want to help?" asked Dean.

"I can't actually. I'm already on food duty!" laughed Gabriella. Dean could see out of the corner of his eye that Troy was smiling. He shot him a look before he walked out of the kitchen and gave Mrs. Montez his winning smile.

"I need to go and change before people start arriving, please make sure that the brochures are out on the tables ok Gabriella? I love you baby!" said Mrs. Montez while she was already on her way out of the kitchen.

"You have such a delightful mother" said Troy with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Oh yeah, she's the best!" Gabriella said matching Troy's sarcasm.

"So what's with your boyfriend? He seems a little uhh high strung?" asked Troy.

"He just gets jealous because he thinks every guy checks me out. Be ready for him to hate you for the rest of his life" said Gabriella jokingly as she gave him her trademark smirk. They continued talking for what seemed like a short time, but was actually a good hour.

Gabriella couldn't help but steal a few glances at Troy while she was taking care of the food. Even though she knew she didn't have feelings for him she couldn't stop staring. _It's those damn eyes!!_ She thought. She knew he was looking at her too, but she didn't care. Normally she would get offended or turn into a bitch when she noticed guys checking her out, it was just what she did. She was Dean's, everyone knew that, and if you didn't you had some hell to pay. She knew she shouldn't be thinking this, but she liked the fact that Troy was different. He didn't seem to care what anyone else thought, it was refreshing. Just then Dean walked in.

"Hey Ella can you help me out here please? The others had to go back to the van quick." Dean said as he made a face that let Gabriella know there was more to it than that.

"Yeah sure babe, I'll be there in a minute!" answered Gabriella.

"Oh yeah that's the way to stop him from being controlling Brie, answer at his beck and call right away" said Troy with a look in his eyes that let Gabriella know that he was saying this for her own good, not to be condescending.

"Stop it. He said please, if that doesn't say love I don't know what does! Anyways I'll see you later ok?" said Gabriella as she walked away, smiling about the fact that he had called her Brie. Her Dad used to call her Brie.

"Have fun with that! Oh and Brie, I'm glad you came into the store today." Troy said before turning back around. He didn't say it to be flirtatious, she could tell that, but there was something in the way he said it that made her stand and stare for awhile. She shook the thoughts from her head and walked into the living room to face a very angry Dean.


	3. Chapter 3

"What the hell Gabriella?" Dean said in a way that Gabriella could tell he was trying to be calm, but just couldn't at the time. She knew he was upset with her because he only ever called her by her full name if he was upset or serious about something.

"What's your problem?" asked Gabriella.

"I was standing by the door, I heard the things he was saying to you, and I saw the look on your face. What do you think you're doing? I tried to ignore the fact that you were openly staring at him in the store, but I can't ignore you flirting with him" said Dean.

"Dean, what the hell? I don't know what you're talking about! I was making conversation, would you rather I just stand there and say absolutely nothing to the guy? I'm sorry, but you know me, I'm not that rude. And at the store, I wasn't staring at him, I was looking at him to figure out if I knew him from somewhere, I really don't see a problem with that." Gabriella said with a hint of retaliation.

"I know you're not rude, but you didn't have to talk about me to him. You didn't have to go into personal stuff. Hell, you could have talked about the weather, school, the party, there's an endless list of things here that aren't personal and you could have talked for awhile about. Why choose to open up to a total stranger?" asked Dean.

"I'm done with this Dean; I can't do this right now. My mother's guests are starting to arrive and I have to get those brochures out still. You need to finish these tables, so why don't we just talk after the party or something ok? "said Gabriella as she placed her hand on his bicep squeezing it to let him know she cared.

"Yeah sure" he said before bending down to give her a quick kiss.

Gabriella made her way to the garage to pull out some of her mother's brochures. _Damnit_ she thought as she looked up and saw the box on the top shelf. She pulled out one of the folding chairs and made an attempt to get the box down. She reached as high as she could and was feeling herself slip but she thought to herself, _I'm almost there I'll be fine_. Just as she finished this thought her foot slipped. She felt hands wrap around her legs and pull her down. Assuming it was Dean, she turned around smiling and said "Thanks babe." Only to realize that it wasn't Dean at all, it was Troy.

"So we're calling each other babe now? Fine by me, but I don't know how your boyfriend is going to feel about it" laughed Troy.

"I thought you were Dean" Gabriella said as she gave him another smirk, only realizing afterwards that that was what Dean was talking about when he said flirting. "How did you know the exact right time to come to my rescue Mr. Caterer?"

"Please Brie, I've got senses like a Ninja, not to brag or anything. Anyways I saw you come out here and when I heard some scuffling I came to see what was up" said Troy.

"Well thank you, you may have just saved my life. I would have been remembered as the great brochure tragedy of 2008. That's never a good way to go" said Gabriella.

"Ah so true" said Troy with a knowing nod "Anyways, I better get back in before Delia flips out on me for leaving her precious meatballs unattended."

"Yeah I'll walk in with you. These brochures were all I needed anyways" said Gabriella as they walked back into the house together. Just as they entered the door she was face to face (well actually face to chest because Dean was 6'2) with a not-so-happy looking Dean.

"Your mom wants you to go stand at the door with her so you "present a family front" when everyone walks in" said Dean with a monotone voice and an expressionless face.

"Oh ok thanks babe!" said Gabriella as she went on her tip-toes to give him a quick kiss "Wanna come?"

"No I think I'll hang back and get the rest of the brochures from the garage" said Dean as he returned her kiss.

"Well I'll see you later, ok?" she said while giving him a concerned look worrying that he might still be upset with her.

"Yeah sure Ella, go be the perfect daughter" said Dean with a smile as Gabriella was already walking out the door. When he knew she was out of earshot he turned to Troy, who was intently staring at the sauce he was stirring.

"You need to stop hitting on my girlfriend dude" said Dean "I don't know if you're doing it because you like her or you're trying to piss me off or what, but it needs to stop. Got it?"

"Whoa, where did that come from? I was just talking to her" responded Troy "She seemed like she needed someone to talk to, that's all. And if I was trying to get her, I'd already have her by now." Troy said as he laughed jokingly. As he finished this sentence he could see the anger starting to spread across Dean's face and realized that probably wasn't the best thing to say. "Sorry dude I was just kidding, I'm not trying to get your girl."

"Yeah well if you try anything; just know that I'm not letting her go for anything. Don't do anything stupid" said Dean as he walked out of the room and went to stand next to Gabriella.

_That guy needs to calm down_ thought Troy. As he looked out into the living room he saw Dean lean down and say something to Gabriella and then both of them walk to a separate room.

"Troy, get those meatballs on a tray, NOW!" yelled Delia, his boss who was also his aunt.

"Sorry Delia. Give me two minutes and they're done" answered Troy. When he had gotten together 10 trays of meatballs and crab cakes he set them on the counter and decided to take a little bit of a rest. It would still be awhile before people wanted more. When he was about to sit down, a teary eyed Gabriella ran through the kitchen and out the door to the garage. Troy sat for awhile to see if Dean would follow her. After a few seconds Troy couldn't stand it anymore, he didn't like the thought of Gabriella crying in the garage alone so he went out to be with her.


	4. Chapter 4

Troy ran out to the garage, making sure no one saw him on his way out, and was stopped in his tracks by what he saw. Gabriella was shriveled in the corner sobbing so badly that it didn't seem like there was any way to make her stop. Troy decided he was going to try, even if she did push him away.

"Brie, are you ok?" Troy asked, immediately feeling stupid because obviously she wasn't.

Gabriella kept sniffling but managed to get out her answer, "No… obviously" she answered with a hint of a small laugh.

"I'm sorry, that was a really stupid question. I meant to ask, do you want some company? I mean I'm not a great crier, but I could sure as hell try!" said Troy with a kind, soft look on his face as he began to approach Gabriella.

"I don't know, I need someone to feel worse than me. Can I punch you? Or jut pinch you really hard because that might make me feel better" said Gabriella as her sniffles began to subside and a smile crept across her face. She knew she shouldn't be talking to him, ultimately he was the reason she was crying. Him and those damn blue eyes got her in trouble, of course. Dean had just given her a "talking to" about how she wasn't being a good girlfriend because she was getting too close to Troy.

_That is such bullshit, I barely even know the guy. I just met him today for __christ's__ sake__! All I did was talk to him about my mom, and maybe Dean a little but honestly I was just making conversation!! _Gabriella thought. Pretty soon she realized that Troy was staring at her.

"Are you thinking about something?" asked Troy.

"Actually yeah I was, but it's not a big deal" answered Gabriella quickly, wondering how he knew.

"Come on, animal cracker for your thoughts!" he said as he pulled out an elephant shaped animal cracker.

She tried to hold it in, but Gabriella couldn't help it and burst out laughing. She kept laughing for what seemed like forever as Troy just stood with a smile on his face, loving watching her laugh.

When she had finally caught her breath again she said, "Isn't it supposed to be penny for your thoughts?"

"Yeah, but I babysat this morning for Delia and all I have are animal crackers. It's an elephant though! Doesn't that count for anything?" asked Troy as he looked into her eyes.

"Oh for sure" giggled Gabriella. She had completely forgotten about what had made her start crying in the first place. Troy seemed to do that to her. He knew just what to do to make her smile, kind of like her dad, she thought. And those eyes, she felt mesmerized by them. She found herself staring into them more than she had wanted to and came back to reality to find Troy staring right back at her with intenseness in his eyes like she'd never seen.

"You like to stare don't you Brie?" Troy asked with a laugh. Truth was he really didn't mind at all.

"Hey! You were staring at me too. How do you know that I wasn't just having a staring contest? DUH!" retaliated Gabriella.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just assumed you were checking out my hot body. Most people do you know" Troy said with a smile on his face while he flexed his muscles. She laughed, which was all Troy wanted. He would do anything to see her beautiful laugh.

"Really? I didn't even notice" joked Gabriella.

Troy gave Gabriella his best surprised/hurt look. "That hurts Brie. That hurts me and my chiseled abs." he said trying to get another laugh out of her. It worked.

"Please, just because you have the shaggy brown hair that covers your bright blue eyes and chiseled abs" she said while she did quotations in the air for the words chiseled abs "doesn't mean that you can just assume everyone thinks you're mysterious and sexy."

"Whoa, whoa. Did you say sexy? Cause I never said sexy. I think someone is having dirty thoughts!" exclaimed Troy jokingly as he pointed an accusing finger at Gabriella.

"Hey! No no no, I said that you assume people THINK you're sexy. That doesn't mean that I think you are." said Gabriella.

"You hit me where it hurts Brie" said Troy with a hurt look on his face "I don't know if we can be friends anymore."

_Friends_thought Gabriella. _I like the sound of that. I can't even remember the last time I just hung out with a friend like this. Now that I think about it, the only person I ever really hang out with is Dean. When did that happen?_

Troy couldn't help but stare at her. He knew that she was thinking about something again. He could tell because her eyes seem to transport her to another world. He couldn't get those eyes out of his head, even before he came to her house. At the store, Troy was staring at Gabriella big brown eyes when he saw that she caught him and had to look away quickly. He still couldn't believe how much he owed fate for bringing him to her house.

Gabriella snapped out of it and noticed Troy staring again. She didn't really mind when he stared at her. It made her feel special to know that someone was paying attention to her. Her mom never did because she was always so busy with her developments, and Dean paid attention to her, but not in this same way. Troy seemed to get her in a way that Dean never had.

"So can I ask what made you come out here by yourself to cry?" questioned Troy.

"Ha, well it's complicated actually. Dean, my boyfriend, was just concerned about some stuff in our relationship, but I'm sure it will be fine." answered Gabriella feeling strangely better about saying it out loud. They would be fine, Gabriella was sure of it.

"Concerned? About what?" asked Troy.

"Umm, just some doubts he had about things I was doing I guess. I'm not really all that sure on it, I kind of ran out on him…" said Gabriella as she looked at the ground.

"Well even if he has doubts who cares? Do you really need a guy to make you feel better? I mean besides me and my animal crackers." asked Troy, trying to get a laugh out of Gabriella, it didn't work this time.

"I don't NEED a guy to make me feel better, but I mean I can't just forget about him and have it be the end of it just because of some doubts he says he has. We've been together forever, to leave for something like this would just be ridiculous." answered Gabriella, acting stubborn as always.

"Together forever? I find that hard to believe. No one is together forever." said Troy as his own stubborn side began to show.

"Well we've been together since we were babies. We had our first kiss when we were 5. I think that would constitute together forever." answered Gabriella as she saw a look of shock come across Troy's face.

"5?! That's crazy! You need to get out some more girl. Forever is a strong word. It has a lot of different meanings, are you sure you want to use it on a relationship?" Said Troy.

"I'm sorry but I don't really see a problem with it. Look at all of the great love stories, they started young. Maybe not that young, but still! It's not that uncommon to fall in love once and for the rest of your life" said Gabriella, almost in a way that she was trying to convince herself as well as Troy.

"I'm not going to argue with you, because I'd probably lose. You seem like a really strong person, just don't let anyone take that from you ok?" Troy answered with a genuine look on his face.

Gabriella was caught off guard by what he said. People had called her strong before when her father died, but never in this way. She knew that he truly meant it, and that was gratifying to her. She liked Troy, even if he was stubborn sometimes. He made her forget that she was the "girl with a dead dad" or "Dean's girlfriend". With him she was just Gabriella, or Brie as he called her. She liked it. Just as she finished thinking about this she glanced at her watch and realized they'd been out there for more than an hour.

"Oh my god I have to go!! My mom is going to be freaking out on me if I'm not back in there soon. Thanks for the elephant!" yelled Gabriella as she ran past him grabbing the cookie from his hand and heading for the door.

"Gabriella wait!" yelled Troy.

Gabriella was caught off guard by him calling her by her full name. She whipped around to see what he wanted. "Yes Troy?"

"Think about what I said ok? Forever really is a big word, don't let your past dictate your future. I meant it when I said you were strong. Don't ever let someone tell you that you're not ok?" said Troy.

"Yes Buddha." said Gabriella as she giggled.

"No problem! See you later." said Troy. Gabriella started to walk in the door, but stopped short and turned around.

"Troy?" said Gabriella.

"Yes" answered Troy.

"Thanks… for everything." Gabriella said as she stared at him for awhile before she walked in the house and closed the door behind her.

Troy watched her walk inside and smiled to himself. She was unlike anyone he'd ever met. She was pretty and nice but at the same time funny and stubborn. He couldn't tell what it was especially about her that made him want to be around her, maybe it was the whole package, who knows. All he knew was that he was glad he had taken that extra shift at the store today.


	5. Chapter 5

Gabriella walked back into the kitchen feeling a lot better than when she walked out. She was really happy that she had a …friend… that would be there for her. She couldn't help but think about how glad she was that she had convinced Dean to go shopping with her that day.

Gabriella stood still for awhile just watching what was going on in the kitchen. She could tell by the exasperated remarks coming from Delia that it wasn't going well. She watched as a very pretty blonde girl in a tight black skirt and an even tighter white button up shirt loaded more crab cakes on a tray and walked out. Another girl who was just as pretty, but a little bit more subtly dressed was pouring wine into glasses and missing terribly.

"Carrie, please God I'm begging you, make sure the wine goes INTO the glasses. Honey I love ya but we really need to not waste any more wine" said Delia.

"Mhm" said Carrie as she walked out the door and was followed a few seconds later by a loud crash. Carrie raced back in the kitchen and outside. The minute she got outside she lit a cigarette.

"Oh not again!" exclaimed Delia "Chad can you please go and clean that mess up in there? If you get it out I promise you that you can drive the van after we're done."

"Alright!" yelled Chad as he rushed out to clean up the mess Carrie had just made. Gabriella laughed at the look her mother must have on her face right now. She liked the thought of it. Looking over at Delia she suddenly felt really sorry for her.

"Do you need any help? I'd be happy to do something. I'm not that great of a cook or anything, but…" asked Gabriella.

Delia turned around and rushed over to Gabriella and gave her a hug so fast that Gabriella was almost knocked off her feet. "THANK YOU SO MUCH!" exclaimed Delia.

"Ha umm no problem." answered Gabriella still a little bit in shock "What would you like me to do?"

"Do you think maybe you could take some wine out to everyone?" asked Delia with a pleading look on her face.

"I can try. I suppose it won't look as bad if I spill on my own carpet huh?" asked Gabriella with a laugh.

"Exactly what I was thinking!" said Delia. "Honey you have no idea how much I appreciate you right now."

"Oh it's not problem, I used to always pretend I was a waitress when I was younger so maybe this will help make my dreams come true!" said Gabriella with a smile as she grabbed the tray of wine and did a little pose with it.

"Oh very nice, I think you have a future in the catering business Brie." said Troy. He had walked in while Delia was squeezing the life out of Gabriella with one of her hugs. He had been standing by the door just watching her with a smile on his face for at least 10 minutes.

"Whoa, someone knows how to sneak up on a person." said Gabriella with her trademark smirk.

"I told you before, I'm a ninja." said Troy as they locked eyes. He couldn't seem to break his gaze with Gabriella; it was like she had a power over him.

"Alright can you two undress each other with your eyes later" said the blonde girl "I need someone to help me with these desserts, and since Bambi already has a tray of wine that leaves you lover boy."

"Bambi?" asked Gabriella with a confused look on her face.

"You eyes hun." said the blonde girl as she cracked a smile. "They're really big and brown so they look like Bambi's. It's a compliment I promise."

"Oh, ok good." laughed Gabriella. "I better get these out there before people start getting vicious. You know how people are when they don't get alcohol!"

Gabriella started walking out the door, but stopped and turned around asking, "Wait, I'm sorry I didn't ask you what your name was?"

"Sharpay! You can call me Shar though, or Hot Pants, everyone else does." Sharpay said as she gave Gabriella a wink.

"Alright you got it Hot Pants!" said Gabriella. "Eh, not the same when I say it huh?"

"Not exactly, but nice try." said Sharpay as her and Gabriella shared a laugh. "Now get out there with those drinks missy or I might drink them all!"

When Gabriella was out the door Troy turned to Sharpay with an angry look on his face. After a few minutes of staring, Troy broke the silence with a laugh.

"I don't believe you sometimes Shar," scoffed Troy with a look of amusement on his face "you can always find the best way to make people feel uncomfortable."

"I don't make people feel uncomfortable! She called me Hot Pants, tell me how she was uncomfortable!" exclaimed Sharpay as she threw her hands in the air causing a few of the cream puffs to hit the ground.

"Sharpie, be careful. Remember small gestures." said Delia as she demonstrated what were small gestures.

"Yeah Sharpie be careful." joked Troy. He knew that Sharpay hated it when anyone called her Sharpie but Delia. Delia was like Sharpay's mother since her own mom died when she was just 5. In fact, the whole catering crew, Carrie, Sharpay, Troy, Chad, and Delia were like their own little family.

Gabriella burst through the door. "Those people are animals!" she yelled with a laugh. "You would not believe how hard it was to not spill with all those people just grabbing!"

"Ah yes, one of the joys of catering parties. Grabbers." said Sharpay. "Just linger for a bit and then move on. Two then leave is what I always do"

"Nice tip. I'll remember that." laughed Gabriella. "They're starting to thin out now. The party is going to be over in about 20 minutes I'd say."

"Shit! I gotta get these cream puffs out then." yelled Sharpay as she ran out. Everyone started cleaning up and Gabriella just stood watching not knowing what to do.

"Honey you can leave if you want, you've been more than enough help." said Delia as she gave Gabriella another hug. "If you ever want a job in the catering business give me a call anytime and you got one."

"Thanks! I may just take you up on that. It was fun!" said Gabriella as she looked at everyone around her and gave them a smile. "I guess I'll see you guys later then?"

"For sure Bambi." said Sharpay "Oh hey, do you want to go out with us tonight? It'll be fun I promise."

"Umm I'm not sure…" said Gabriella.

"Yeah she has to go attend to her boyfriend. He would probably get mad if she ever hung out with anyone but him for one night. Don't risk it." said Troy with a defiant look on his face, his eyes begging Gabriella to come with them.

"Excuse me?" said Gabriella as she put her hand on her hip "No I'm coming. Just give me a minute ok?"

"Sure we're not leaving until we're all cleaned up so you can go upstairs and get all sex-ified if you want to. We'll be waiting by the van when you're done alright Bambi?" said Sharpay.

"Alright sounds good, I'll see you in a bit then!" said Gabriella with a wave as she walked out the door.

Troy couldn't believe it. He didn't actually think she would come. What was he supposed to do now? She made him so nervous, he even wondered if she realized how nervous she actually made him. All he knew was that if tonight was going to be half as good as their talk in the garage, he might not be able to conceal his feelings for her much longer.


	6. Chapter 6

Gabriella made it into the living room, just outside the kitchen door, but that was as far as she got. She had no idea how she was going to pull this off. What was she going to do just go up to Dean and say "Hey Dean, I'm going to hang out with Troy and the gang, the guy you hate and think I'm flirting with, but don't worry I'll see you tomorrow, TOODLES!". How about no. She had to think of a better plan.

Right as she was starting to think of a plan Dean appeared from behind the bathroom door. _Oh great _thought Gabriella _now what am I going to say?_

"Hey babe! How was the rest of your night?" questioned Dean.

"Oh you know, fulfilled some dreams, served some alcohol, ate a few cream puffs, saved the world. No biggie" said Gabriella as she stood on her toes to give Dean a kiss.

"That's my girl. I swear you multi-task more than Oprah" laughed Dean.

"Wow… hun you totally just blew that whole straight thing you had going on, now everyone's going to know you're gay. What's the point in pretending anymore?!" exclaimed Gabriella as she threw her arms in the air.

"Haha very funny!" said Dean as she grabbed Gabriella and threw her over his shoulder.

Gabriella knew her plan was working. She wanted to make him laugh. Maybe if he was too busy laughing he wouldn't hear her saying Troy's name. Maybe she didn't have to say his name…?

"So what are your plans for the rest of the night pooky?" asked Gabriella casually as Dean put her down.

"I was going to hang with my favorite girl, but by the way you said that it sounds like I'm going to hang out by myself tonight?" asked Dean with a pouty look on his face.

"I'm sorry I told Sharpay that I would hang out with her and Carrie tonight. They invited me earlier; I didn't want to say no. I hope you're ok with that?" asked Gabriella, anxiousness in her voice.

"Of course! Go hang out with the girls. I'll still be here tomorrow. I'm not going anywhere!" Dean said as he gave Gabriella another bear hug and kissed her on the cheek. "Call me when you get back though ok? Just so I know you're home safe."

"Thanks for being so understanding babe. It might be late when we get back though. Sharpay seems like a party animal to me" Gabriella said with a laugh "But I will text you or something ok?"

"Sounds like a plan home skillet" said Dean as Gabriella giggled "Have fun Ella Bella." He leaned down and gave Gabriella a kiss and another hug and walked out the front door. When Gabriella saw that Dean was in his car and down the street she ran upstairs to get freshened up as fast as possible. She didn't want to make them wait for her.

When she got upstairs she whipped open her closet door and frantically began searching for a shirt.

_Where the hell_ _is my black tank top?!_ thought Gabriella _I know it's in here somewhere I haven't worn it in months.__ Ah found it!!_

Gabriella quickly threw on her black top, raced to the mirror to fix her frazzled hair and threw on some makeup. When she had finished that she started to head for the door until she realized she hadn't found shoes yet. She ran over to her bed, jumped on the floor and began pulling everything out from her bed. When she found the black, pointy toe pumps she was looking for, there was a knock on the door.

"Anyone in here?" said a familiar voice.

"Oh hey Troy" said Gabriella awkwardly, not knowing what to do. She hadn't had another boy in her room for years. "I'm almost ready I promise. Once these shoes are on I'm done!"

"Oh no don't worry about it. I was just trying to get out of cleaning so I thought I'd come see what the room of "Ella Bella" looks like." Troy said with a laugh as he made quote gestures with his hands around the words Ella Bella.

"Haha you're so funny I almost laughed" Gabriella said as she stood up to greet Troy face to face "I'm so telling Delia you're up here and then you'll be in trouble" she said as she started walking towards the door jokingly "Not so funny now huh?!" she said as she started giggling.

Troy reached for her arm to try and stop her but ended up grabbing her hand instead. Gabriella stopped short and slowly turned around to see Troy quickly pull his hand away and push back his hair as he looked down at the ground.

"I'm sorry I wasn't trying to hold your hand, I just wanted to stop you from leaving. I'm really sorry. I shouldn't ha-" stammered Troy as Gabriella interrupted him.

"Don't even worry about it! It's totally cool I know you're not a creepy pervert so we're good." said Gabriella as she tried to make Troy feel more comfortable. By the sound of his laughter, it seemed to have worked.

"Good to know I don't seem like a creepy pervert. It's what every guy wants a girl to think about him!" laughed Troy .

"I knew it! I had always wondered what guys wanted and now thanks to you, Troy …" she stopped short "Wait, what's your last name? I feel bad for not knowing!" she said.

"Bolton" stated Troy plainly.

"THE Troy Bolton? No way! You're like a god around here with those basketball skills of yours. I can't believe I didn't even recognize you" said Gabriella with a smile on her face, genuinely surprised she didn't put it together.

"Please, not you too. I hate that everyone thinks that right away when they hear my name. I'm more than a basketball player." said Troy, shaking his head.

"I know you're a lot more than a basketball player Troy, even if you are the best." giggled Gabriella "You're one of the easiest people to talk to, and I've only known you for less than a day. Don't worry, I don't think you're just another basketball player."

This brought a huge smile to Troy's face. He liked having someone say it out loud. He was pretty sure his parents just thought of him as their basketball son sometimes, he hated it! He had always wanted to quit, just to see what people would do. Basketball used to be the most enjoyable thing in his life, he loved doing it, but lately it was becoming more of a burden. The pressure to be perfect was stressing him out more than he ever thought it would.

"Thanks for making it mushy Brie, now I feel like we're talking about our feelings!" said Troy as he play punched her arm gently.

"Hey! So not cool" said Gabriella as she pushed him away "Fine! We are done talking, let's go party it up! I'm pretty sure they're probably done cleaning now right? I mean it doesn't matter for me because I didn't have to help, but you, mister, ducked out."

"Haha so funny. Yeah they're probably done. Let's roll out!" said Troy in his best "gangster rap" voice as he motioned for the door.

"Wow…. I really don't know what to say. I think I'm just gunna stay here tonight. You can go and be gangsta somewhere else Eminem" said Gabriella as she started shutting her bedroom door on him.

"Just cause yo' jealous that I be reppin!" Troy said as he did his best gangsta stance.

"Wow ha you just keep making it worse hun, let's just stop right now ok?" said Gabriella.

"Did you just call me hun?" said Troy with a half smile on his face as he saw Gabriella starting to get really uncomfortable as she shifted from side to side. She hadn't even realized she'd said it. It just came so natural that she didn't even think twice about it.

"Yeah whatever, let's just go." said Gabriella before things would get even more awkward. She started walking down the stairs hoping Troy would follow her and just let it go. She knew he wouldn't, no matter how much she willed it to happen.

"Alright let's go hun." Troy said as a joke, but the second he came out of his mouth he realized it felt so perfect. He didn't really know what to think of this. Of course he had started to think there might be something between the two of them, but he knew nothing could happen.

Gabriella whipped around and pointed her finger at him as she was trying to suppress a smile. "STOP! It slipped out. Actually I think you imagined it, I never said anything." She said as she turned around and kept heading down the stairs.

Troy chased her down yelling after her "You know it happened, don't deny it! Admitting it is the first step to success!!" he yelled after her. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he saw everyone staring at him. He didn't even think about the fact that everyone would hear him yelling and chasing her down the stairs.

"Whoa what were you two doing up there?" said Sharpay as she raised her eyebrows staring at both of them.

"Stop it Sharpie, let's just go." Troy replied as a smile crept on his face.

"BOLTON!" said Sharpay as she starting lunging for Troy. The smile immediately left Troy's face and he raced out the door to the van. "Yeah you better run!!"

Gabriella followed out the door laughing as she yelled a goodbye to her mother. She was excited to see what would happen tonight.


	7. Chapter 7

Gabriella followed Carrie out to the van. She had already started to notice that Carrie was the quieter of the two sisters. Carrie never used more than one word answers, some of them weren't even audible. Her favorite answers consisted of "mmhmm" and "duneven". Gabriella's observations were confirmed when she asked Carrie if they were all going in the van.

"Mmhmm" said Carrie as she continued walking towards the van. Gabriella knew she didn't say it to be rude, that as just how Carrie was.

Troy was still trying to get into the front seat of the van, but wasn't having much luck. Sharpay was keeping true to her threats and hitting Troy, the big basketball guy, hard enough to make him wince. He tried to pretend it didn't hurt, even if his face was giving him away.

"Sharpay stop, you're just wasting time. Don't you want to get to that party before all of your precious Smirnoff is gone?" said Troy, trying to get Sharpay's mind off of beating the pulp out of him. It seemed to work because Sharpay gave him one last punch and walked over to the driver's side of the van.

"Hey where's Delia?" asked Gabriella.

"She took my car back to her house so we could have the van to fit everyone in." said Troy. Sharpay turned the key in the van and the engine turned over a few more times before roaring to life.

"Everyone ready?" asked Sharpay as Gabriella got in the van and slammed the door shut. "Damn girl, we would like to keep the door connected to the van." she said with a laugh.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to." Gabriella said laughing, she knew Sharpay was joking. Sharpay turned the car around and started heading for the end of the driveway and took a right. They kept going down the road for what seemed like forever. Gabriella could tell they were heading for the country, she couldn't tell how she felt about that. She liked the country, but it was so far out of town, what if she wanted to go home?

"I have some more animal crackers Brie, unless you wanna just keep making that thinking face of yours and keep it to yourself." said Troy, holding out a giraffe for Gabriella to take.

"You know I'm not sure if I should even eat those things. I'm starting to feel sick from the elephant. How long have they been in your pocket?" asked Gabriella as she gave Troy another one of her smirks.

"Hey! This one is from the bag. I just took it out." said Troy pointing at the bag by his feet "And that elephant was fresh so don't even blame your sickness on him!"

"I love how you're talking about the elephant like he was real." said Gabriella as she couldn't stop her laughter.

"I'm done talking to you. You're so not getting this giraffe anymore. You lost your chance." said Troy as he turned around in his seat, popped the giraffe in his mouth, and crossed his arms.

"Aw, come on. I wasn't trying to be mean. I really want the giraffe" said Gabriella as she reached up and put her hand on Troy's shoulder "Can I please have a giraffe? I promise I won't be mean anymore."

Troy just kept facing the front and tried to ignore the fact that the feel of her hand on his shoulder gave him butterflies. As this whole episode was going on, Sharpay was laughing to herself. She couldn't help but smile as these two in the beginning stages of flirting. She had always loved that part of relationships.

Eventually Troy gave in and handed Gabriella another giraffe cookie and the rest of the trip was silent except for the radio playing and the occasional singing from Gabriella. When Troy was deep in the trance Gabriella had over him with her voice, the song "With you" by Chris Brown came on the radio.

"AH THIS IS MY FAVORITE SONG!!" screamed Sharpay.

Everyone laughed at how badly Sharpay was singing to the song, but no one wanted to say anything. They all knew if they did say something she would just keep singing anyways, she didn't care what anyone else thought of her. Gabriella envied that about her. She decided she was going to take a chance and belt it out with her.

"And oh, I'm into you and girl no one else would do. With every kiss and every hug you make me fall in love…" sang the girls in unison. Pretty soon everyone in the car was singing along, with the exception of Carrie of course.

Through most of the song Troy was staring at Gabriella, she looked so beautiful when she laughed. He could tell she was having fun, and he loved watching her in that kind of joy. There were a few points during the song where Gabriella would look at him and they would lock eyes. Sometimes they'd even end up singing to each other.

Gabriella was surprised at how good of a voice Troy had. She tried to sing soft sometimes to just listen to his voice, but Sharpay's voice was kind of overpowering. Gabriella didn't know that Troy was also trying to sing quiet so he could hear her voice. Eventually the song ended and they all sat back in their seats, laughing.

"Great Jam session everyone!!" yelled Sharpay as she slapped the steering wheel. "And you, Bambi, are fricken amazing!! Where'd you learn how to sing like that?"

"Stop" said Gabriella as she started blushing and looked out the window.

"Oh apparently Bambi doesn't know how good she is! Don't be humble, embrace the talent woman!" replied Sharpay as she kept turning around to look at Gabriella.

Gabriella was relieved when they pulled into the party right at that moment. She whipped open the door and jumped out before she was questioned more on her singing voice. Gabriella looked around and saw clumps of people all over the place with a keg strategically placed here and there.

"Wow, seems pretty classy" whispered Gabriella to Troy as she leaned in towards him.

Troy laughed and answered "I promise it'll be fun, and if it's not we'll just keep each other entertained until Sharpay hits her limit, sound good?"

"Sounds like a plan to me sparky." answered Gabriella as she sat down on the bumper of the van.

"Sparky?" repeated Troy as he raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not sure how I feel about that, I'll let you try it out for tonight though."

"Sparky?!" yelled Sharpay as she walked back over to them with two Smirnoff's in her hands "I like it Troy! I'm calling you that forever now. Thanks Bambi!"

"Shut up Sharpie. If you call me Sparky then I call you Sharpie, make your choice." answered Troy.

"Whatever, I don't even care anymore. You're Sparky now." Sharpay said as she started walking back to the keg and did two shots with 3 other girls.

"She really goes to town on that stuff huh?" asked Gabriella.

"Yeah, she knows she has people to take care of her so she goes a little overboard sometimes." said Troy as he looked over at Sharpay and shook his head. "So do you want a drink or anything? I don't really know if you're into this sort of thing or not."

"I might take a Smirnoff, but that's as much as I'll do." laughed Gabriella "I'm kind of a lightweight and don't want to go home drunk or anything. Sorry I'm kind of a bore."

"You're not boring. I'm not drinking at all, so you're better than me." said Troy as he walked over to the drinks and grabbed Gabriella a Smirnoff and handed it to her.

"Well if you're not drinking than I'm not either" answered Gabriella as she handed the Smirnoff back to him.

"Let's not have another animal cracker fight." Troy said laughing.

"I really don't want it. I'm fine right now." Gabriella answered.

"Ok fine, but if you do want something, let me know" said Troy as he set the Smirnoff on the ground and scooter closer to Gabriella, not even realizing he was doing it. He felt like he was drawn to her in some way. "Well what should we do with our time then? It's going to be at least a couple hours before Sharpay hits her limit."

"I don't know, you wanna play a game?" said Gabriella as she made a face "Wow that sounded really childish huh?"

"No! I want to play a game. Which one?" asked Troy as he sat up a little straighter.

"We could play Truth. That was a must have at sleepovers back in the day." Gabriella said with a laugh. She looked over at Troy and saw a confused look on his face. "You're telling me you don't know what it is? Think about the name, it's pretty self explanatory."

"Well then explain it to me miss smarty pants." said Troy with a smile.

"It's like Truth or Dare, but without the Dare. And you have to answer every question, you can say pass but the next question you have to answer no matter what." Gabriella answered.

"How do you win this game?" asked Troy.

"If you ask someone a question and they don't answer, the next person has to answer the question given to them. If the other person doesn't answer then the game just keeps on going." answered Gabriella "Understand?"

"I think so. Do you want to go first, or me?" Troy asked.

"I'll go first" said Gabriella "Ok Sparky, what's your relationship status at the moment?"

"Ha, way to start off with the hard ones. You can't even ease a guy into this?" Troy answered as he rustled his hair a little.

Gabriella was kind of scared by his reaction. She thought it would be an easy question, but maybe she shouldn't assume things so quickly.

"Well I have a kind of girlfriend right now, we've been seeing each other for awhile, but she recently moved to California. We never really talked about what our status was when she left, but we still talk on the phone and everything. So honestly I don't know what my relationship status is. Does that answer your question?" asked Troy as he continued rustling his hair.

"In a round-about way, yeah" answered Gabriella as she continued looking at the ground, not knowing how she felt about what he just told her. "Ok your turn to ask me a question."

"Ok, do you love Dean?" asked Troy bluntly. He knew it would make her feel uncomfortable, but she had to answer. He had been wondering the whole night, he thought now was the perfect time to ask. He could tell by the look on her face that this may have just ended their friendship, but he had to take a chance.

Gabriella sat there, completely caught off guard by what she just heard. She knew she was going to answer; she was too stubborn to lose this game. At the same time, she couldn't help but feel like a horrible person for even having to think about this question. She had been with Dean forever, of course she loved him. Right?


	8. Chapter 8

"You know maybe I will take that Smirnoff after all" said Gabriella as she bent down and grabbed the bottle by Troy's feet.

"Hey are you avoiding the question?" asked Troy "Does this mean that I win?!"

"NO I never said that! I was just thirsty" yelled Gabriella "Chill a second Sparky!"

Truth was Gabriella was stalling as much as possible. She didn't know what she should say. Of course she loved Dean, she just wasn't sure in what way anymore. Lately, even before Troy, she had been feeling like they were drifting into friendship instead of a relationship feel anymore. She still loved spending time with him, there was no doubt about that, but she wanted to have that giddy feeling again. The feeling of love, and butterflies in your stomach was something she had longed for countless times in the past few months. While she was thinking about this, she found herself turning to look into Troy's blue eyes and realize she was starting to feel those butterflies again.

"Is there a time limit in this game?" said Troy impatiently "Because I don't think it's fair that you get to think about your answer this long! Plus while you've been "thinking" you've downed two of those Smirnoff's. Don't you think you should slow down a little?" He said with a concerned look on his face as he leaned over to look her in the eyes.

Gabriella didn't even notice she was drinking that much. She really was a lightweight, she didn't lie about that. She knew she would have to stop soon otherwise she'd be falling all over Troy drunk and she didn't want that on their first night hanging out.

"Alright here comes my answer, are you ready for this?" said Gabriella as she began to lean on Troy, not even noticing she was doing it.

Troy laughed "I've been ready for 10 minutes now Brie." He answered as he leaned in towards her a little too.

"I love him. I always have and I always will, I'm just not sure in what way anymore." Gabriella said, breathing out a sigh of relief for finally saying that out loud.

"Wow. Just throwing this out there, but why are you with him if you don't love him romantically anymore?" said Troy as he pulled away to look her in the eyes.

"I said I wasn't sure. I never said I didn't! and plus you can't just end a relationship that you've been in your entire life just because you have some doubts" said Gabriella as she avoided his gaze.

"It seems to me like you're just avoiding change Brie" said Troy "You know you can live without him. I thought we had this conversation before? At least something like it."

"Yeah you're right this seems a little familiar" she answered "And I'm not afraid of change, I just don't want to make rash decisions. Plus you have only known me for a day, what the hell do you know about my life?" said Gabriella as she finished off her 4th Smirnoff.

Troy was taken aback by how hostile she was with him. He didn't think she would get mad at him. He just wanted to talk to her. He did however take into account the fact that she was probably drunk at this point. He decided to let it go and just blame it on the alcohol.

"I think you've had enough Brie. Let's switch you over to water ok?" said Troy as he put his arm around Gabriella and took the empty bottle from her hand.

"I'm fine" she said as she stood up off the bumper and stumbled a little. "I think I need to pee."

Troy laughed at how blunt she was. "Well I'm sorry, but you're going to have to pop a squat somewhere because we're in the country Brie, there aren't any toilets."

"Damn… I can hold it then." Gabriella said as she sat back down on the bumper and kind of fell over into Troy.

Troy was loving the closeness, but couldn't help feeling like he shouldn't let her get this close to him. He didn't want her to be weirded out when she realized what she did the night before, he wanted to keep this girl in his life as long as possible.

"Troy…" said Gabriella, not looking up, still just leaning on him, motionless.

"Yeah, Brie?" said Troy as he turned his head to look at her, making sure not to move their bodies.

"I know this is corny and it doesn't mean a lot coming from a drunk person, but I want you to know that you remind me of my dad." She said as her voice drifted off.

"I'm sure that's one of the highest compliments coming from you, and it does mean a lot for me to hear you say that. More than you know." Troy put his arm around her and held her close as she cried into his chest.

"I'm sorry I'm freaking you out right now, this has just been the weirdest day ever." Gabriella said in between tears "It started off with me going to the store with my boyfriend who everyone thinks I'm going to marry, and honestly I used to too, and then I meet some random cashier and then he ends up being a caterer at my mom's party and THEN we end up actually talking and becoming friends, and now I'm sitting here crying on his shoulder while sitting on a bumper, piss ass drunk."

Troy started laughing, and pulled her in close. "Brie, I think this has been one of the best days of my life. You have no idea how much you make me laugh. I haven't laughed like this since…" Troy stopped short, his body stiffened.

"Since what?" asked Gabriella as she sat up and wiped her tears, looking at him.

"Nothing, we better get Sharpay, she seems to have hit her limit early tonight." Troy said as he pointed to a very clumsy Sharpay who was falling all over some guy.

"Troy, please tell me. We're friends" Gabriella said leaning in so close that Troy could smell her sweet perfume mixed with the strong smell of alcohol "Right Sparky?"

"We are Brie. I promise I will tell you some other time, just not tonight please?" Troy asked, his eyes pleading with her to agree.

"That sounds fair, but I'm holding you to that promise ok?" said Gabriella as she poked his chest with her index finger.

"I never break promises." Troy said strongly as he gazed into Gabriella's eyes intently.

Truth was, Gabriella already knew that about Troy. She was very good at picking up on that sort of thing, she knew from the moment he first gave her that elephant animal cracker that she could trust him with her life. She knew she had only felt that with one other man, and his name wasn't Dean. Frightened by the thoughts she was having about her father and Troy, Gabriella stood up so fast that she completely lost her balance. She would have fallen over, but Troy was right there to catch her.

"Come on Brie, let's get you in the van. I'm going to go get Sharpay ok?" Troy said as he was already carrying her bridal style to the van.

While Troy was carrying Brie she noticed a familiar face from across the field. She couldn't seem to quite make out the face, but the body was undeniable. No doubt about it, it was Dean.


	9. Chapter 9

"Put me in the van, put me in the van!!" shout whispered Gabriella as she wiggled around in Troy's arms. She would jump out of his arms, but she knew she wouldn't get too far that way.

"What is wrong with you?" asked Troy as he picked up the pace to get to the van faster.

"Dean is here!" Gabriella said, continuing to whisper.

"What? Where?" Troy asked, whipping his head around every which way to catch a glimpse of him.

"It doesn't matter just get me to the damn van!" Gabriella said, still attempting to wiggle around thinking that might make him go faster.

"Ok Ok! You need to settle. He's way over there. There is no way he's going to see you from across the field." Troy said as he started opening the van door and trying to put Gabriella in there, while she jumped out of his arms.

Gabriella crouched down in the van to make sure that no one could see her through the windows. She reached to shut the door, but Troy jumped in with her. This would not look good if Dean found her this way. He would definitely think something was up.

"Get out, you can't be in here." said Gabriella.

"It's my aunt's van, I think I have a right to be in here." Troy said, feeling a little offended.

"Yeah, but if Dean sees us in here together he's bound to think there's something going on. I cannot deal with that right now." Gabriella said as she continued moving away from Troy.

Troy just sat there, staring for what seemed like forever. Then in one quick motion he turned around, opened the door, and hopped out without saying a word.

Gabriella stared at him for awhile as he walked away toward Sharpay, and then quickly started scanning to find Dean again. She knew she was safe in here, but she still wanted to keep an eye on him.

_Wait a second_ she thought _what the hell is he doing here? He never said anything about going to a party, I should know about this._ Gabriella pulled out her cell phone and started dialing his number. It rang a few times before she realized what she was doing; there was no way she could call him!! That was the stupidest idea she'd had the whole night. She quickly hung up the phone.

After a few minutes, Gabriella's phone started ringing. She had forgotten that cell phone's had caller ID. She tried to compose herself a little before answering the phone, so he wouldn't suspect anything. Taking a deep breath, she flipped open her phone and put it up to her ear.

"Hello?" she said trying to sound like her perky self.

"Hey babe you called me earlier. Did you need something?" asked Dean. Gabriella could hear sounds of a party in the background so she thought it was safe to ask.

"No, just wanted to talk. Where are you? It sounds loud." Gabriella said, trying not to sound suspicious.

"Oh I'm at a party with Brandon, he called me after I left your house and since we weren't doing anything I thought it would be ok. Is it?" asked Dean.

"Yeah babe it's fine, I was just curious about where you were. Well I'll see you tomorrow ok?" said Gabriella, kind of mad that she couldn't be mad at him. She thought if he lied to her then she wouldn't feel so bad about lying to him. _Oh god I'm a horrible person_ thought Gabriella quickly.

"Yeah, I'll call you when I wake up tomorrow. I love you?" Dean said as more of a question then a statement.

"Yeah love you too." Gabriella said kind of trailing off. She was about to hang up when she heard Dean say something else. She brought the phone back up to her ear.

"Are you ok? You sound kind of distant. Do you want me to come over? I can leave here anytime, it's not a big deal." Dean said, starting to sound concerned. He was the perfect boyfriend, which is why Gabriella felt so horrible about everything she had said and felt that day. He didn't deserve this. She had to get away from here as fast as possible. She had to be honest.

"Dean I have to tell you something. It's kind of funny actually. I think you're gunna lau-" she said, starting to ramble.

"Babe, just tell me" he interrupted, sounding a little worried.

"Well you know the party you're at?" Gabriella said slowly.

"Yeah…?" answered Dean.

"Well you see I'm kind of there too. In fact I'm looking at you right now, creepy I know, but yeah remember I told you that I was going to hang out with Sharpay and the gang, well yeah this is the party and I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away I was just scar-" rambled Gabriella again.

Dean interrupted "Really? Where?" he said, actually sounding excited.

"Well you see that big white van on the edge of the field? Yup that's me inside there." she said with a laugh, really happy at how easily he was taking this. She thought he'd be really mad. He did tend to have a temper.

"I'll come over. See you in a bit babe." Dean said hanging up before Gabriella could even say anything. Just then, Troy opened the passenger's side door and laid Sharpay on the seat. She was, of course, completely passed out.

_Shit_ thought Gabriella _this cannot be good._

Troy then proceeded to open up the backseat door, next to Gabriella and set another girl, who he had also carried over, inside the van. Gabriella recognized her as one of the girls that Sharpay was taking shots with, apparently they were taking her home too.

"BAMBI RIGHT?!" yelled the girl. She was obviously the drunkest of the bunch.

"Ha um yup, you can call me Gabriella too if you want." Gabriella laughed "And you are?"

"I'M ERIN! I'M SHARPAY'S BEST FRIEND. I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO STUCK BY HER WHEN THEY HAD THEIR FAMILY….PROBLEM? YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT RIGHT???" Erin said, still shouting. Not surprisingly, Sharpay didn't seem to move an inch throughout all this shouting, she was completely passed out.

"Erin, hun, stop yelling. We're in the car and we can all hear you. Inside voices, remember when we talked about that?" Troy said as he placed his hand on her knee to get her attention.

"Oh yeah… sorry!" Erin said, now turning to a whisper. "Well Gabs, it's nice to meet you! But next time you have to promise to do shots with us. Oh and Troy, I have to stay at your house again tonight. I forgot my keys." She said, kind of as a side note, as if she didn't even need to ask.

"Yeah that's fine, just go to sleep ok? We have to take Gabriella home first, so it's going to be a little bit still. Here take my sweatshirt" he said handing his sweatshirt to Erin as he turned on the car.

"He's always like this. He's the greatest guy I know, he'll take care of us every night and never say a word about it. I only wish every guy out there was like him ya know?" Erin said as she leaned in, still whispering to Gabriella.

"Yeah I do." Gabriella said as she stared at Troy. Right at that moment, her cell phone rang. She had totally forgotten in all the chaos that Dean was coming over to see her in the van. They were already starting to pull out of the field, what could she do now?

"Hello?" Gabriella said apprehensively.

"Where the hell are you going in that van with… him" said Dean, making sure Gabriella knew how pissed off he was.

"I'm sorry! I got a ride with them and two of the girls who came with had to go and I need to help carry them to their rooms so I had to go with. I'll call you when I'm done ok?" Gabriella said, quickly thinking of excuses.

"I love you Ella, but I know that's total bullshit. Call me when you're done fawning over the caterer." Dean said before he hung up on Gabriella.

The minute she heard the phone click, Gabriella started tearing up. She had really screwed things up this time. She had pissed Dean off before, but she'd never pissed him off over another guy before. Dean was always so confident in their relationship; he was the one who held them together. Gabriella couldn't take it anymore, she had to get out of this van.

"Troy, pull over." Gabriella said. Troy glanced back at Gabriella.

"Stop it Brie, we're almost back to your house." Troy said as he continued driving.

"I swear to god if you do not stop this car I will tuck and roll!" Gabriella said as she started hyperventilating. All the stress and chaos of the day was finally catching up to her. She was about ready to blow. The tears were right on the brink.

"Brie, calm down. You're fine" Troy said starting to sound concerned "Just breathe and try to relax."

"Do not tell me what to do Troy Bolton. And don't ever call me Brie again! My dad was the only one who could ever call me that!" Gabriella shouted as she fumbled for the door handle. Troy screeched the car to a halt and hopped out to go back and see why Gabriella was freaking out so much.

"Gabriella, what's wrong? Talk to me." Troy said as he opened the door and caught Gabriella when she jumped out of the van. He pulled Gabriella into a hug, with no intention of letting go, no matter how much she struggled.

"LET GO!!" Gabriella yelled as she tried to pull away, punching and flailing her arms.

"Stop, you are fine. Just calm down. Breathe with me ok?" Troy said as he started taking steady breaths hoping that she would go along with it. Eventually Gabriella started taking deep breaths, and stopped fighting Troy's embrace. Gabriella seemed to be leaning in closer, and wrapping her arms around Troy tighter the longer they hugged. They stood just hugging each other on the side of the road for what seemed like forever.


	10. Chapter 10

Troy started to slowly pull away from their hug, knowing that everyone in the car had curfew, but the minute he moved Gabriella just pulled him closer. She had no intention of letting him go anytime soon. She felt safe with him; she wanted to keep that feeling.

After a few more minutes, Gabriella felt like it might be ok to let go. They both pulled away from their embrace, but still kept their hands on each other's body. Gabriella looked up at Troy.

"I'm sorry I freaked out on you like that. It was just too much to handle." Gabriella said, staring into his bright blue eyes. "It's just that I've never done anything to make Dean mad. Throughout our entire lives together, we've never had a fight and he's never spoken to me like that until…"

"Until me, right?" Troy said as he looked at his feet, but still keeping his hands on her waist.

"Well… yeah. But there's nothing to be jealous about right? I mean we both have significant others, we're just friends." Gabriella said as she looked into his eyes and realized her hands were still lingering on his body. She quickly pulled them away, realizing that what she was saying was contradicting what she was doing.

"Yeah of course, you have Dean and I have Lindsay. Nothing to be jealous of." Troy said.

"Exactly, friends?" Gabriella said holding out her hand for him to shake.

"Friends." said Troy as he ignored her hand and went in to give her a hug.

Gabriella gave into the hug again, but then quickly pulled away, "Should we go?"

"Yup, we need to get you home Miss Montez!" said Troy.

Troy and Gabriella got back into the van. When they were both buckled, Troy started the engine and continued driving down the road. After 10 very silent minutes, he pulled into her driveway. Gabriella slid open her door and was about ready to get out, but hesitated for a minute.

"I'll walk you to your door." Troy said before stopping "If that's ok?"

"Yeah I was actually waiting to see if you'd say anything!" Gabriella said laughing "Sorry I'm kind of a wuss, but I'm always too scared to walk anywhere in the dark by myself, even if it is only 10 feet."

"Yeah, no problem." Troy said as he got out of the van and slammed the door. He looked through the window to see if he woke Sharpay or Erin, who was passed out too. He saw Erin move a little, and look at him through the window. He motioned for her to go back to sleep. She smiled and turned her head to follow his instructions.

"I like them." Gabriella said as she giggled at the scene she just witnessed "They're both so funny! How long have you known them?"

"Sharpay I've known since diapers, and Erin is actually an interesting story." Troy said laughing, trying to avoid the subject.

"Well I'd like to hear the story." Gabriella said laughing as she pushed Troy's shoulder so he would turn and look at her. "If I remember right it's my turn in Truth so my question is, what's the story with you and Erin?"

"Oh this girl knows how to play the game!" Troy said laughing as he threw his head back, looking at the sky.

"Damn right I do! You obviously never had to survive a life or death slumber party!" Gabriella said as she moved closer to Troy subconsciously.

"Can't say that I have really. Unless you count those few times with the cheerleading squad…oh man those were good times." Troy said as he glanced over to see Gabriella expression. He noticed her turn and stare at him with her mouth wide open.

"I'm kidding!!" he yelled as he threw his hands in the air. "I'm not really into the whole cheerleader type."

"Good! I was about ready to punch you!" Gabriella said as she smacked his arm.

"Why, were you a cheerleader Montez?" Troy said as he rubbed his arm, pretending it hurt.

"No Bolton, actually I was a track runner! I used to love running. I would run 5 miles every morning." Gabriella said with a proud look on her face.

"So why'd you stop then?" Troy asked.

"Um I think you're avoiding your question. What happened with you and Erin?" said Gabriella, not wanting to tell him the reason. It was too much to bring back right now.

"Oo you remembered that huh? I thought for sure I'd talk you into a different subject." Troy said laughing nervously. "It's not really that big of a deal. I've known Erin almost as long as I've known Sharpay, but in 5th grade we started dating. I thought she was the love of my life actually."

"Whoa! I did not see that one coming? So why'd you break up?" Gabriella said, genuinely amused at how badly Troy was fidgeting.

"Well I was getting to that, if you would have let me finish" Troy said as he glared at Gabriella jokingly. Gabriella zipped her mouth shut and stood with her arms crossed, ready to listen.

"Anyways. So we started dating, and were actually together until 7th grade. If I remember right I wanted to propose to her, but she told me that if I did she'd say no because she wasn't ready to have my "hot babies" yet. She wanted to wait until she was at LEAST in 9th grade." Troy said as him and Gabriella both started laughing.

"Well, that was the year that my little sister was hit by a drunk driver, so when that happened I pulled away from everyone. I didn't feel like I could face anyone anymore so I stopped going to school and kind of turned into a bad kid. I was sent to the juvenile detention center a few counties away. Erin stuck by me through everything, even when I told her that I never wanted to see her again. We broke up, but we stayed best friends through everything. She was the only one who ever came to visit me; my own mother didn't even come to see me. Ever since then we've just been best friends. I honestly don't think I would be here without her." Troy said as he looked down at his feet. He'd never told anyone that story before. The only person who knew the whole truth was Erin, and now Gabriella.

"Wow." Gabriella said, stunned "She sounds like an amazing friend. I wish I had friends like that."

"You do." Troy said plainly, as he lifted his head to look her in the eyes.

"Thanks" Gabriella said as she locked eyes with him. "I've never really had good friends before. It's always just been me and Dean. Not that I resent that or anything! I'm glad he's in my life, it's just that sometimes you need friends, you know?"

"Yeah I do." Troy said as he smiled at Gabriella "Well look no more because you have made 4 new friends tonight, and they're some pretty great ones if I do say so myself." Troy said as he gave her a wink.

"I'd say they're pretty great too." Gabriella said as she gave him an over exaggerated wink causing Troy to laugh out loud.

"Nice, Brie, real nice." said Troy before his expression dropped. "Sorry I didn't mean to call you Brie."

"I was just upset in the car. My dad really was the only one who ever called me Brie. Normally I would never let anyone else call me that, but for some reason when you say it, it sounds right." Gabriella said before her eyes got big "Wow I didn't mean to say that out loud."

"Don't worry about it. I don't think I could ever call you Gabriella or Ella Bella for that matter. It just seems weird to me. Brie seems perfect. If you don't mind?" Troy asked, so he didn't seem too forward.

"Nope, go for it Sparky!" Gabriella laughed.

"Alright, good. Well I better get those drunkards to bed. I'll see you later?" Troy said expectantly.

"You got it Sparky!" Gabriella said as she locked eyes with him again. They started moving closer, never breaking eye contact. They're hands started heading for each other's body when…

I'M NOT GUNNA WRITE YOU A LOVE SONG. CAUSE YOU ASKED FOR IT. CAUSE YOU NEED ONE…

Gabriella's ringtone went off and scared both of them enough to make them jump 3 feet apart. Gabriella glanced down at the caller ID and saw Dean's name.

_Ok God is telling me something here_ she thought.

"It's Dean." She said as she avoided Troy's gaze. "I better take this. I'll see you later." Gabriella started walking away.

"Hey Baby. How are you?" Gabriella said as she glanced back to see Troy still standing in the same spot staring at her. She waved one last time before turning around and walking inside.


	11. Chapter 11

Troy watched Gabriella until she was safely behind the door. He wanted to make sure she got in safe, even if she did just completely ditch him. He couldn't help but feel resentment towards Dean. Although he was her boyfriend, and he had just saved them from doing something that could possibly have been regretted the next day. Maybe it was for the best?

Troy made it back to the van and opened the driver's side door to get inside. When he had climbed in and was about to turn the engine on, he heard a small voice mumble from behind him.

"You got something with her?" said Carrie.

"Well Carrie, it's safe to say you just scared the shit out of me" Troy said as he whipped around "Nice job."

"Well?" Carrie said as she stared at Troy expectantly.

"I have Lindsay, what are you talking about?" Troy said as he turned around so he didn't have to look her in the eyes. He knew he wasn't being totally truthful, and he also knew that Carrie would be the one to be able to tell by looking at him.

"Troy, come on." Carrie said as she kept her monotone voice, but cocked her head to the side. She knew something was up, she always knew.

Troy let out a long sigh. "I honestly don't know. You saw what just happened. Her boyfriend called and she immediately forgot I was even there." He said. "She has a boyfriend Car. That means I need to forget about all of this. She's just a friend."

"Some people are just meant to be together." Carrie said, quoting someone they both knew very well. These words caused a huge smile to come across Troy's face.

"You're right. She always knew best didn't she?" Troy said laughing as he looked down at his hands.

"She did. Don't forget that ok? Everyone wants you to be happy." Carrie said as she stretched to reach up to the front and grab Troy's hand. When she had his hand in hers, she looked in his eyes to make sure he really did take the message to heart. They were both referring to Troy's ex-girlfriend, who also happened to be Carrie and Sharpay's late sister.

Troy and Christy were together for 3 years before she developed cancer. She died 6 months ago. He knew she was his first true love, and even still he felt like he should be with her. He should have been the one to go through all the pain.

Lindsay was just his rebound girl, someone to make him feel better about losing his soul mate. He knew it wasn't right, and he knew he didn't love her. He didn't really believe he'd ever love anyone else during his lifetime, so why even try? All of this, of course, was before he met Gabriella.

When he first saw Gabriella, he felt like there was some sort of force pushing him towards her. It felt as if it were some force that he had no control over, as if someone's hand was physically pushing them together. He hadn't realized until now that maybe it was Christy, telling him to move on.

"How did I get so lucky to have three of the best girls in my life?" Troy said as he laughed looking at the passed out Sharpay and Erin and then back to Carrie.

"Four." said Carrie, indicating that Gabriella was now officially part of their group. Troy smiled and squeezed Carrie's hand.

"You're right. Four." Troy said, smiling. "Ok we really need to go, we're going to miss curfew. Doctor Phil session is now officially over." He turned around about ready to start the van, but stopped and turned to face Carrie again. "Thanks Carrie." They smiled at each other, before Troy turned back around and started the van.

Gabriella had just hung up the phone and was now sitting on a chair in their living room. How had she seriously just gotten out of that. Dean was so upset with her before, and after she sweet talked him a bit and made him realize she didn't want Troy, everything was better. She was one lucky girl.

There was one thing that was eating away at her stomach. Did she want Troy? She didn't want to. Gabriella didn't like change and if she did like Troy, EVERYTHING would change. She wished her dad was still alive. He was the one with all the answers, ever since she was little. If you wanted answers, you went to daddy. Her life was so incomplete without him. Her mom thought she was perfectly fine. They tried to avoid talking about it at all costs because that's the way her mom wanted it, and that's the way it was going to be.

Sure Dean was there for her when her Dad died, but he never really liked to talk about emotional things. He liked to keep everything on a need to know basis, with no crying. He would ask her how she was and that was the end of it. He loved her more than anything, she knew that, but he didn't seem to care about what she was going through at times, not like Troy. Troy tried to get emotions out of her. He seemed to love talking about feelings.

_Why does life have to be so complicated?!_ thought Gabriella _I need to forget about this night and start fresh tomorrow._

"Right, I need to forget about everything." Gabriella said out loud, trying to make it sound more certain.

Even though she said it out loud, she knew she couldn't just let those people go. They were the kind of people that once they were in your life, they were there forever. She really didn't mind. They were all great friends. The best part about them was that they were all completely different, but together they were perfect. She decided that even if it would jeopardize her relationship with Dean, she would not let these friendships die. She needed friends. She had sacrificed friendships for her entire life because of Dean, but not anymore.

Gabriella pulled out her cell phone and dialed Troy's number; they had exchanged numbers at the party. She would have called Erin or Sharpay, but she knew they were both passed out, plus she liked talking to Troy. The mere sound of his voice seemed to solve everything for her. The phone started ringing.

"Hello?" Troy's voice came on the line.

"Hey Troy, uh it's Gabriella." She said hesitantly.

"I know Brie, caller ID remember?" Troy said laughing.

"Ah yes, modern technology. Isn't it super?" Gabriella answered, feeling a little stupid. She started to lie down on the couch to get comfortable.

"Yeah. So, um, is there a reason you were calling? Or just to talk?" Troy said, hoping that she would say that she just wanted to talk. He liked the idea of her calling just to call.

"I'm not really sure. I kind of wanted to say sorry for not saying goodbye to you tonight." Gabriella said "and also just to talk. I'm not tired so I thought I'd call and see if you got back on time and what you were up to."

Troy smiled as he imagined her sitting on her couch, twirling her beautiful dark brown curls around her finger. "It's fine, you were distracted by your phone call. And yeah we got back on time. I had to carry Sharpay and Erin inside though. They're both sound asleep in my bed right now, and I'm on the couch. Does that sound fair to you?"

"No it doesn't!" laughed Gabriella "You're such a great friend Troy. They're lucky to have you."

"I think it's the other way around." Troy said, matter-of-factly "I'm lucky to have them."

"Whatever you say Sparky. I can't wait until I hang out with you guys again. I had so much fun, especially with Erin. That girl is hilarious!"

"Yeah Erin definitely makes life more interesting. She knows exactly the right way to make a person laugh." Troy said as he smiled to himself, thinking about all the times Erin helped him through.

"So do you. I just wanted to sit by myself doing SAT prep tonight, but I came out because of you. And I wasn't expecting to have any fun because I didn't really know you guys, but you made sure I had fun. You're a great friend Troy." Gabriella said, making sure Troy knew she meant every word she said.

"Thanks" Troy said, happy that no one could see him blushing. "Brie, do you think that something made us run into each other twice in one day? Like fate or something?" Troy said, instantly feeling self conscious, not being able to see her face when he asked this question.

"I do actually. I'm a big believer in fate, and I think fate brought us together and fate made us friends. I like to think that my dad brought you guys to me. He somehow knew I needed friends and made it happen." Gabriella said as she twirled her curls around her finger. "Does that sound stupid?"

"That doesn't sound stupid at all! I think that sounds really nice." Troy said "I think that someone brought you to me too"

"Really? Who?" Gabriella said, genuinely curious. She thought he might be talking about his sister, but didn't want to say anything.

"Uh, a girl I used to know." Troy said, not really sure if he was ready to lay more of his problems on Gabriella.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to pry!" Gabriella said, instantly feeling bad. She hadn't wanted to pry, but she did happen to do it every once in awhile.

"No it's fine. Her name was Christy, she died 6 months ago." Troy said, but stopped when he heard Gabriella gasp on the other side of the line. "Don't feel sorry for me. We had a great romance. The kind you read about in books you know?"

"I love those kinds of romances. Would you mind if I asked you to tell me more? I'd love to hear all about your romance. I'm a sucker for love stories." Gabriella said, trying to lighten the mood a little bit.

Troy began telling Gabriella all about Christy. He told her about how they met, the special moments throughout their relationship, when they first found out she had cancer, and what she said to him in her last days. Nothing was off limits. They talked until 4:00 AM about anything and everything until Gabriella realized what time it was, and decided she needed to go to bed. They said their goodbyes and promised to call each other the next day and make plans to hang out.

It was 6:00 am and Troy was still not able to fall asleep, so he pulled out a notebook and started writing something down. He kept on writing for hours, even through his alarm that he set for 9:00. It seemed to be flowing so easily that nothing could tear him away from what he was writing. He wanted it to be perfect, perfect for Gabriella.


	12. Chapter 12

Gabriella woke up the next day feeling way more tired than she'd expected. She couldn't fall asleep until 8:00 that morning because she couldn't stop thinking about that conversation. She liked the feeling of having someone actually care about her again, and care about what she thought. She had started to feel so used to being pushed into the background, or following what everyone else said since her dad died, but she wasn't going to take it anymore, Troy made her realize that.

Just then, Gabriella's ringtone started blaring again, but it was different this time. It wasn't Dean's ringtone. She glanced at the caller ID, curious about who would be calling her at 9 in the morning. Gabriella saw the name and suddenly got really excited.

"Hello?" Gabriella said, trying not to sound too excited for fear of sounding stupid.

"Hey Bambi! What are you doing?" Sharpay answered, not hiding her excitement. Sharpay was never one to hide any emotion

"Nothing, just trying to make myself get out of bed." Gabriella said laughing "What are you doing?"

"Ah, Bambi needs her beauty sleep huh?" Sharpay said as she laughed too "Did our boy Troy keep you up late last night or what?"

"We were just talking on the phone, not a big deal." Gabriella said defensively.

"I didn't mean anything by it, but since you're getting so defensive…" Sharpay said, implying something.

"Stop! So ANYWAYS, what are you doing dear?" Gabriella said, wishing more than anything that they would stop talking about Troy.

"I was calling to see if you wanted to go shopping today! There's another party tonight and I need a new outfit." Sharpay said, once again not hiding her excitement. "Hey! I want to find you a new outfit too! We can be the hottest girls at the party baby!"

"Are you saying we wouldn't be otherwise?" Gabriella said in her best fake mad voice.

"Oh stop it, you know we would be, but tonight we're just going to be extra hot." Sharpay answered "You wanna come with?"

"To the party or shopping?" Gabriella asked.

"Well I already know you're coming to the party, you have no choice woman. I'm asking if you wanna come shopping." Sharpay said as she made hand gestures that Gabriella obviously couldn't see.

"Ah, Sharpay I don't know. I was out last night. I don't know how Dean would feel about me going out without him two nights in a row." Gabriella said as she played with her curls.

"Hey Gabs, live a little." Sharpay said, restating something her sister used to say to her.

They were really small, simple words, but for some reason they really hit home for her. She decided she was going to listen to Sharpay. All she had been doing for the past year since her Dad died was listening to what everyone told her to do. She would sit in her room at night and study for the SAT's, do the dishes, help her mom at the office, and hang out with Dean. None of those things were something she did for herself. Something needed to change. Maybe change could be good?

"I'm in. What time?" Gabriella answered confidently.

"I'll pick you up at like 11ish? We can go out for lunch or something too, my treat!" Sharpay said excitedly. Carrie never went shopping with her, and Erin was still passed out from the night before.

"Sounds good. You remember where my house is right?" Gabriella said as she already started getting out of bed to head to her closet.

"Psh, of course!" Sharpay laughed "See you in a bit, love!" The girls hung up the phone and both made a run for the closet. It was hard to say who was more excited. Sharpay was excited to finally add another person to their group, and Gabriella was excited to finally be in a group.

Gabriella chose her dark denim skirt with her plain black tank top and matching belt. She stood at her closet for awhile deciding between flip flops and ballet flats and finally decided that flip flops would be more comfortable. She was putting the finishing touches on her makeup and hair when she realized she only had a half hour before Sharpay would be there. She quickly picked up her cell phone and decided it'd be easier to call her mom first, then Dean.

"Hey mom, it's me." Gabriella said.

"Hey honey, what do you need?" her mom said, sounding distracted, like always.

"I just wanted to tell you I'm going shopping so I won't be here when you come home for lunch. I'm not sure when I'll be home so just call my cell if you need me ok?" she said, knowing her mom would remember none of this when they hung up, but at least she told her.

"Ok, have fun! Love you" her mom said, hanging up the phone before Gabriella could even said I love you back. _Oh well, that's mom I guess_ she thought. Now it was time to make the uncomfortable call, Dean.

He picked up before the second ring was even done. "Hey babe, what's goin on?" he said.

"Hey sweetie. I was just calling to let you know I can't hang out tonight. I'm going out with Sharpay again." Gabriella said, closing her eyes and holding her breath just hoping he wouldn't blow up at her.

Silence.

"Hello?" she said, hesitantly.

Silence.

She looked at her phone to make sure he hadn't hung up. No, the call was still connected.

"Dean? It'd be helpful if you, oh I don't know, said something!" Gabriella said, getting a little scared.

A few more seconds of silence and then, "I don't think she's good for you Ella."

"What do you mean by that? You don't even know her." She answered, feeling really defensive and protective of her new friend who has been nothing but nice to her.

"Because last night, you lied to me and then rode away in a van with the caterer, and now tonight you're going to hang out with her again and no doubt go to another party. This isn't like you. I don't think she's good for you." Dean said. This made Gabriella really angry.

"Ok you know what Dean, "the caterer" has a name, and it's Troy. And I called and told you the truth, so you cannot hold that against me. Oh and yes I am going to a party with her tonight, I'm a high school senior Dean, I'm allowed to have fun. You have no right to tell me what's good for me and what isn't. This is my life. I'm sorry, but you don't have any control over it." Gabriella said, running out of breath towards the end of her big speech. She felt strangely relieved; she liked the feeling of having everything out there. No secrets.

"Ella, stop yelling. I'm trying to help you. You don't have to listen to me, but I've been your boyfriend for 12 years now, I think that constitutes me being able to worry about you and who you hang out with and what you do." Dean answered.

"Thanks for your input, but it's my life. I'm going shopping with Sharpay in 5 minutes to find outfits, and then I'm going to the party. I'll maybe call you later." Gabriella said before hanging up, she was so sick of Dean trying to "help her". The only time he ever wanted to help her was when it would affect him somehow. She was excited to go out tonight and forget about it with her new friends.

She heard a honk from outside. She grabbed her purse and keys, and ran out the door, locking it behind her. She ran down the walk to a waiting Sharpay.

"Get in the car girl! I have a pocket full of cash and I'm ready to spend it!" Sharpay yelled out the window as she waved to Gabriella.

Gabriella got in the car, buckled up and smiled to herself. She was finally feeling like her life was starting again.

**A/N – Sorry it was a little shorter than the others, but ****I didn't want to add two different scenes in one and make it too long! The shopping trip and party will be in the next chapter. Please review!**

**P.S. A lot of the things that Gabriella and Sharpay say are based off me. I call almost everyone "love" or "dear" and especially "woman" ****lol**** it's just what I do! And ****the way Gabriella and Sharpay act around each other is how my friends and I act, so I hope they seem natural!**


	13. Chapter 13

"How about this one?" Sharpay said as she held up a smaller than small pink tank top.

Gabriella made a face indicating that maybe it wasn't the best choice. "Why don't you try this one?" Gabriella said holding up a halter top, in the same shade of pink, that had jewels along the collar. "It's pretty, yet still sexy as hell. Just like you loverbutt!!" Gabriella said laughing as she threw the shirt at her friend.

"Oh gee thanks. I feel a little violated to tell you the truth." Sharpay said as she laughed and started walking towards the dressing room, Gabriella following behind her with an armful of her own clothes to try on.

"Tell me when you have one on, I wanna see!" Sharpay yelled as Gabriella was already walking to her own room and raised her arm in the air to signify that she heard her.

Gabriella decided to try on the dark blue tank top that she picked up. It was her favorite so she hoped that it would look good enough where she could stop there. Gabriella hated trying on clothes, she was more of a grab and buy girl. She pulled it over her head, and adjusted it a little. She looked at herself from every angle and genuinely liked how she looked in it, that didn't happen very often.

"Hey Bambi get out here!" Sharpay yelled from outside her door as she began incessantly knocking on the door until Gabriella opened it.

"You need to take a chill pill homes." Gabriella said laughing as she opened the door. Her laugh started to fade when Sharpay didn't say anything. She just kept staring at her.

"You're freaking me out, does it look that bad?" Gabriella said as she started to feel self-conscious. Maybe it didn't look as good as she thought?

"No, Gabs you look amazing!" Sharpay said as she continued to stare. "You have to buy that!"

"Haha, um ok? If you're sure it looks ok?" Gabriella asked. _It's just a tank top_ thought Gabriella.

"I think it looks great." a voice behind them said. Gabriella whipped around to see a tall guy with sandy blonde hair standing behind them. She figured he worked there because he had a nametag on that said "Shawn".

"Thanks." Gabriella said as she started blushing and looked at her feet.

"Hi, I'm Shawn." He said as he held out his hand for her to shake.

"I'm Gabriella." She answered, not shaking his hand, but instead giving him a small smile.

"Aaand I'm Sharpay!" Sharpay said as she squeezed in between them, taking his hand.

"Uh, hi. So where are you girls going in those fancy outfits?" Shawn said as he looked past Sharpay and at Gabriella.

They both turned to look at Gabriella who just smiled and started to shy away. Sharpay could tell she was uncomfortable so she decided to answer for her.

"We're going to a party up by Grandad's Bluff. It's supposed to be one of the biggest parties of the summer." Sharpay answered as she turned and looked back at Shawn.

"Ah, really? I'm going to that too, but I won't be there until later. I work until 11:00." Shawn answered as he flashed a smile at Gabriella, which was answered with another uninterested look.

"Well, let me give you my cell phone number and you can call me when you get there, ok?" Sharpay answered as she was already grabbing for his hand to write her number on it.

"Sounds great. I'll see you girls later, then?" Shawn answered, looking down at his hand smiling.

"Yup! Call me!" Sharpay said smiling, before she turned around to walk back to Gabriella. She gave Gabriella a silent scream the minute she turned around. When Shawn left, Sharpay started freaking out.

"Oh my god! He's so cute!" Sharpay said, squealing.

"Yeah he was pretty good looking." Gabriella said, giving Sharpay a half laugh.

"And, um, what was with you? You turned into a mute when he walked over! I know you have a boyfriend and all, but I thought you were a flirt considering how you are with Troy. I guess that means there's something with Troy…" Sharpay said, giving Gabriella the eyebrow.

"A flirt? Wow thanks Shar." Gabriella said acting hurt.

"Leave it to you to only take THAT out of what I just said. You do like Troy don't you!" Sharpay said pointing her finger at Gabriella and jumping up and down.

"Stop it! No, I don't. I just didn't like Shawn, AND I have a boyfriend! I flirt with my boyfriend. That's what normal people do." Gabriella said, saying the last part slowly to make sure it stuck with Sharpay.

"Oh stop it I know what normal people do. I just don't think it's worth my time, plus it's no fun!" Sharpay said, winking at Gabriella.

"Alright that's settled then. Now we can leave this subject alone, and we can leave this store! You buy your pink shirt because it looks amazing on you, and I'll buy this tank top." Gabriella said already starting to head out of the dressing rooms.

"Excuse me? You cannot just do that!" Sharpay said running after Gabriella. "We are not done talking about this subject!!"

"Oh yes we are!" Gabriella said in a sing-song voice, while picking up the pace.

"You want Troy and everybody knows it! Don't deny it Gabriella Montez!" Sharpay yelled loud enough for the whole store to hear. Gabriella whipped around, surprised that Sharpay had actually called her by her real name.

"Oh that's right, I just went there!" Sharpay said laughing at her friend's horrified look. "I'm sorry, it's true."

Gabriella didn't say anything, she just took both of their shirts, put them down on the rack, and grabbed Sharpay's arm, dragging her out of the store. Gabriella turned around to face Sharpay, but seemed to be avoiding her gaze.

"What's going on? I wanted to buy that shirt." Sharpay said, giving her friend a weird look.

"Um, we need to talk." Gabriella said, still not looking in Sharpay's eyes.

"Okay sounds good. How about you look at me and tell me this huge news you have." Sharpay said as she gently pushed Gabriella.

Gabriella looked up into Sharpay's brown eyes. She didn't know why she was so afraid; she knew Sharpay wouldn't judge her. Maybe she was more afraid of just finally vocalizing it? This had been eating away at her since she met Troy the day before. _Well here goes_, she thought.

"Well I wanna talk to you about Troy." Gabriella said slowly, forcing herself to spit out his name.

"AH I KNEW IT! YOU HAVE A THING FOR OUR BOY TROY!" Sharpay shouted really loud. Gabriella lunged for her and covered her mouth before she said anything more.

"Sharpay shut your mouth before I shut it for you!" Gabriella threatened a laughing Sharpay.

"Ok fine, just take your hands off the goods missy." Sharpay said, with a smile still on her face.

Gabriella backed away a little and put her hands in her pockets. She took a deep breath and got ready to finally get this weight off her chest; good or bad, this was for the best.

"Ok so Troy is a really good friend. I don't know what I think about him yet, but I will tell you this so you stop bugging me ok?" Sharpay nodded her head. "I feel some sort of weird connection with him, like I've never felt with anyone else you know? Not even Dean. We just get along so well, and it's so easy to be myself around him." Gabriella said, the words just flowing out of her, but never breaking her smile. "I usually never let people into my lives that easily, but it seems like we balance each other out. When I freak out, he's there, even if I didn't ask him to be, and when he acts funny I know what's wrong. I've never really had that in my life." Gabriella said, letting out a sigh of relief that she had finally gotten that out. She hadn't realized it, but the more she spoke, the bigger her smile got.

Sharpay didn't say anything for a good 30 seconds, she just stood there smiling with her hands up at her mouth. She looked like she was about to cry. Then without warning she jumped over and tackled Gabriella in a hug.

"Oh my gosh I'm so happy! You have no idea!" Sharpay said, still holding Gabriella in a tight hug.

"I'm glad you feel that way." Gabriella said laughing as she hugged Sharpay back. "But why?"

"Because you two are _too_ perfect for each other. I know you have Dean and you don't wanna mess that up, which is fine, but just don't rule it out ok?" Sharpay said sincerely, pulling back to look Gabriella in the eyes.

"Okay, but I have Dean. I was just saying I feel a weird connection with Troy, that doesn't mean I'll be jumping his bones anytime soon." Gabriella answered.

"Okay. Just promise me you won't rule it out?" Sharpay said.

"I promise." Gabriella said, nodding her head. Sharpay let go of their hug and backed up a little. She cocked her head to the side.

"You swear?" she said.

"I swear on that tank top in there! Now let's go buy those shirts so we can go get ready. You're running out of beauty prep time!" Gabriella said, laughing as she linked arms with Sharpay and walked back inside the store.

**A/N -- ****Ok guys, sorry this took forever to get out! I had a little trouble keeping focused. (Ok so "a little" is a bit of an understatement ****lol****). So I wanted to say sorry first for that, and second for not putting the party in this chapter. I don't know where I'm going with it yet so I decided to hold off. Thirdly I'd like to say thanks to Kirsten and Erin for trying to keep me focused! ****Thanks to Kirsten for her beautiful song about ****Zac****Efron**** to inspire me ****lol**** I loved it! And to**** Erin for her help with some of the ****tweakage**** that needed to be done ****lol****. I love you twin!!! Well I hope you enjoyed it and please review! I love to get your feedback.**


	14. Chapter 14

"Damn girl, if I were a guy I'd totally tap you." Sharpay yelled as she turned to look at Gabriella. "Hell, I'd probably tap you right now if I were drunk enough." She said giving Gabriella a wink.

"Haha you're so funny... lesbo." Gabriella said laughing as she threw her pillow at Sharpay. She had been ready for almost a half an hour now and was just lounging around waiting for Sharpay to finish. She started to pick at her nails before Sharpay came over and knocked her hand away.

"Hey what the hell was that for?" Gabriella said.

"You need to stop picking at your nails! We just had those done 3 hours ago!" Sharpay said. "There are three things in this world I don't joke about: shopping, love, and MANICURES!"

Gabriella doubled over in laughter while Sharpay still stood in front of her, hands on her hips. 

"I'm sorry! I love you Shar, but those are three things that don't seem that important to me." Gabriella answered still stifling some laughs.

"I understand shopping and manicures, because you have to be me to love those that much, but love? You don't think love is important?" Sharpay said as she sat down next to Gabriella on the bed.

"Well, no. I don't actually. There's so many people you love in this world so why is one person so important. You lose that one, you always find someone else. The only people that matter are the ones that show you matter to them. I don't know about you, but in my lifetime there's only been one person to do that, and that was my Dad, and he's gone. He used to always tell me he'd be there for me, no matter what, forever, and he's gone now. Forever is a bullshit word, it means nothing in reality." Gabriella said, starting to tear up. She hated showing this kind of emotion; she was supposed to be the strong one in the family.

"Hey, there are so many people that love you and care about you. Take me for example. I've only known you for what, two days now? And I love you like you're my best friend! And Troy, he would do anything for you already." Sharpay said as she started rubbing Gabriella's back.

"Whatever, I'm done talking about this." Gabriella said, sniffing back her tears and standing up. "We are going to have fun tonight, and forget about every stupid thing that has happened to us this week ok?"

"You got that one right woman!" Sharpay said as she stood up and clapped her hands. "Just let me finish my makeup, it's not right yet."

Gabriella rolled her eyes thinking about the amount of time she had already wasted waiting for Sharpay to get ready when her phone started ringing. She looked down at the caller ID and saw Troy's name. She felt a strange leap in her stomach at the sight of his name, but chose to ignore it.

"Hello?" Gabriella said.

"Hey Brie, Erin and I are outside your house right now. Are you two almost ready to go?" Troy said. Gabriella could hear Erin singing along to the radio in the background and laughed to herself.

"Well you see the thing is, I've been ready for almost an hour, but Miss Fabulous here is taking forever! I'll try and hurry her ass up though." Gabriella said laughing as Sharpay turned around and gave her a shocked/hurt look. "We'll be down in 5, k?"

"Alright sounds good." Troy said before they both hung up the phone.

Sharpay kept trying to add more makeup to her face as Gabriella dragged her out of the house. She kept protesting that they'd be early anyways so why were they in such a rush, even though it was already 10:30. They finally made it out to the van and opened the door to see alcohol piled in the back seat. Erin turned around and screaming excitedly at Gabriella.

"BAMBI! I haven't seen you in so long!" Erin yelled as she leaped to the backseat to give Gabriella a hug.

"Hun, we just saw each other last night. But I'm still glad to see you!" Gabriella said, hugging her back.

"Oh yeah, well who the fuck cares. You're going to party with me tonight right!" Erin said, yelling again.

"Damn right I am! You and me, jello shots ok?" Gabriella laughed as she held up her hand for a high five.

"FUCK YEAH!" Erin yelled again before Troy turned around and grabbed her arm. It was obvious to Gabriella now that Erin had already started drinking that night.

"Hey Erin, come back up here. I want you to sit by me ok?" Troy said, just trying to get her into a seatbelt.

Erin agreed and moved back up to the front seat and let Troy buckle her in. Gabriella smiled at how nice he was being. Troy was one of the nicest guys she had ever met, and not just because he was adorable. He was a genuinely nice guy, who cared about people. She had only known him for almost two days, but could tell that about him already.

"Are we all ready to head out?" Troy said as he started the engine again.

"I know I'm ready!" Erin yelled as she raised her hands in the air. "Oh and girls, just to let you know, this is my alcohol here" she said pointing at the big pile of bottles on one side "and this stuff is for everyone!" she said pointing at another smaller pile of bottles close by. "But I'm always willing to share!"

"Oh gee thanks Erin!" Sharpay said as she rolled her eyes, but then quickly flashed a smile at a pouting Erin.

"Ok anyways! Is everyone ready for another jam session?" Gabriella said as she clapped her hands and looked at an eager Sharpay. "Because Sharpay and I made pretty much the greatest CD ever for the trip up to the bluff!"

"Oh great, what's it going to be?" Troy groaned "A whole lot of chick songs?"

"Hey! Not fair!" Gabriella said, reaching up to slap Troy's shoulder. "We picked some classics, like one of my all-time favorites that you, Troy Bolton, are going to love!" Gabriella handed the CD to Erin to put into the player, and a familiar tune starting blaring from the speakers.

"Ah! No way Montez, you like this song?" Troy yelled over the music, and began to sing along loudly, with no inhibitions, much to the delight of Gabriella.

"Don't act so surprised Bolton!" Gabriella said smiling, thoroughly enjoying seeing him so excited, she had never seen him this unreserved since she'd met him. "Now shut up and sing!"

"OH YEAH! LIFE GOES ON! LONG AFTER THE THRILL OF LIVING IS GONE! OH YEAH I SAID LIFE GOES ON! LONG AFTER THE THRILL OF LIVING IS GONE. THEY WALK ON." 

They all sang in unison with John Mellencamp. Again, Troy and Gabriella shared a few glances at each other during the song, followed by non-stop smiling from both parties. Their jam session lasted all the way up to the party on the bluff, which was about a 30 minute drive. Gabriella couldn't help but feel extremely excited for the night's events. She also couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of guilt for being so happy with a guy other than her boyfriend. She quickly shook it off and hopped out of the van to face a very happy Erin.

"One shot for you. Two shots for me!" Erin said, handing Gabriella shot glass that was already filled to the brim with alcohol. Gabriella was genuinely amazed at how fast she had gotten those shots out.

"Thanks!" Gabriella said, throwing the shot back and feeling the all too familiar burn ease down her throat. "But I'm thinking I need a few more! Don't hold out on me now!" Gabriella laughed as Erin sprung to action to get her two more shots.

"Don't waste my alcohol woman. If you ask for it you need to take it in double!" Erin yelled as she practically forced the shots down Gabriella's throat. Gabriella didn't mind; she had planned on getting completely wasted that night anyways, why not just make it happen faster?

"Hey, slow down ok?" Troy said as he walked over by the girls. "I don't know if I can carry all three of you at once. I might have to leave one of you on the side of the road somewhere, and I'm not saying who it would be." Troy said as he pointed at Erin in a jokingly obvious manner.

"Hey! You jerk!" Erin said as she slapped Troy's arm, but then a smile crept across her face. "Well we all knew you weren't going to leave Bambi. You'd probably die without being able to gaze into her eyes longingly." Erin said as she began making puppy dog eyes at Troy and batting her eye lashes. Troy began to blush, and Gabriella knew he had been talking about her to Erin.

"Aw stop teasing him. He made the right choice of who gets to live and who dies." Gabriella said as she hugged Troy and made a face at Erin.

"You two lovers need to stop molesting each other and drink more alcohol." Erin said as she handed Gabriella another shot.

Gabriella could feel the alcohol having its effect on her because she always got extremely friendly when she drank. She could tell this because when she went to take her shot from Erin's hand, she left one arm still wrapped around Troy's body, even while she was taking it. She couldn't seem to pull herself away.

"Hell yeah Bambi! I never knew you were such a BAMF!" Erin yelled as she pulled out a few beers for her and Gabriella to sip on after they finished their shot. **(A/N: For those of you who are not Dane Cook fan's, BAMF mean's Bad Ass Mother Fucker lol.) **

"Oh please, I was born to party!" Gabriella said, taking the beer from Erin's hand, and still not letting go of Troy. Troy had now draped his arm around her body as well.

"Just don't party too hard ok? I don't want you to go overboard." Troy whispered in Gabriella's ear.

Gabriella was already feeling a little bit tipsy; she was after all a major lightweight and had drank a large amount of alcohol already. She knew Troy was right and promised to not allow herself more than a few more beers for the night, but decided to have a little bit of fun.

"Are you afraid that you won't be able to handle this?" Gabriella said jokingly as she poked him in the side.

"If you're anything like Erin. Hell no!" Troy said with a straight face before, "But if you're like Sharpay, you might be do-able." Troy tried to keep the straight face for a bit longer before he lost it and started laughing.

"You don't seem to mind looking after them." Gabriella said turning to Troy with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh I don't. You see when I do look after them, I get the best blackmail. Well for Sharpay anyways…Erin doesn't really seem to care too much." Troy said with a shrug.

"Ah I see! Well I have to warn you, I get pretty wild when there's some alcohol in my system!" Gabriella said as she let go of Troy and started walking away, looking back to give him her trademark smirk.

"Lucky for you I'm used to handling wild girls." Troy called after her, making Gabriella whip around and give him a surprised look. He knew that would get her attention, he was surprised at how jealous she actually looked though.

"You better be joking Sparky." Gabriella said as she started walking back towards him.

"I'm keeping my mouth shut on this one Brie, sorry!" Troy said, laughing. He loved how jealous she was getting. He hadn't had this much fun in a long time, and he owed it all to the dark-eyed beauty standing in front of him. It took all the will power he had in him not to bend down and kiss her right now. She was right there in front of him, and he couldn't even make a move.

"I can tell you're lying. Your eyes don't lie honey I'm sorry." Gabriella said as she stood on her tip-toes to get closer to eye level with him. She wanted to kiss him so badly, but she knew she couldn't. She could tell he wanted to kiss her as much as she wanted to kiss him, but she decided to hold off. Gabriella knew 

that the timing wasn't right; she wanted it to be perfect. She wanted her first kiss with Troy to be something magical, like something you only see in movies or read about in books.

"Damn, I thought I had you for a second there." Troy said laughing as he reached out, pulling Gabriella into a bear hug.

"You did! I was about ready to go and beat the ass of every girl who's ever looked at you!" Gabriella said, letting the alcohol take over her and say the things she'd been wanting to say since she'd met Troy.

"Oh really? So now you're not only a crazy drunk, but you're jealous too? I'm liking you more and more as the night goes on Brie." Troy said, still hugging Gabriella. 

He finally let her go and they walked over to where the rest of the party was happening. They saw Sharpay right in the middle of all the chaos, having a conversation with the guy from the store. Not too far from her they saw Erin passing out shots to more people but forcefully taking a shot out of one girl's hand and giving her a glare before she bitched at her for taking her alcohol without asking. One thing Gabriella had learned is you don't mess with Erin and her alcohol. Gabriella smiled at her friends, thinking about how thankful she was that she finally had a good group of friends who actually cared about her, and didn't run at the slightest sign of trouble.

Troy and Gabriella walked over by Sharpay, who was now standing by the bonfire. Troy couldn't resist anymore and finally allowed himself to freely stare at Gabriella. He loved everything about her. It was really rare to meet someone as beautiful as her, who was just as beautiful on the inside. He was glad he had the pleasure to be this close to her. He knew the guys around him were jealous; he could feel their eyes on him, which made him move even closer to Gabriella. 

"Oh so I'm not the only jealous one here huh?" Gabriella said, laughing at how protective Troy was becoming. Protective was something Dean never was until there was another guy in the picture. She hated that she kept comparing Dean and Troy to each other, but sometimes she couldn't help it. Just as Gabriella was thinking this, Sharpay walked over to them. 

"Well don't you two look cozy together?" Sharpay said, obviously drunk. 

Gabriella hadn't realized it, but she and Troy were still holding onto each other. She hadn't noticed because they felt so natural together. What she was doing with him didn't feel wrong or new or strange to her, it just felt right. They turned their heads to look at each other and smiled.

"So where did Shawn go?" Gabriella asked, turning back to Sharpay, remembering the name of the store worker.

"Oh he's going to get me another drink. I can have him get you one if you want. You're kind of running low on that one." Sharpay said, pointing at Gabriella's almost empty bottle. She hadn't even realized she'd drank that much already.

"I'll just head over and get my own at some point. Thanks though!" Gabriella said noticing Shawn making his way over to them already.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Troy said as he looked down at Gabriella worriedly. He was already having to hold her up so she wouldn't stumble all over the place.

"I can take care of myself you know." Gabriella said, starting to get defensive. She was kind of starting to get annoyed with Troy and his comments about her drinking. She pulled away and started to walk towards the coolers where Erin was.

"Hey Bitch! What up!" Erin yelled as soon as she saw Gabriella walking towards her. Gabriella started laughing partly because of how funny Erin sounded, but mostly because the alcohol was making her laugh uncontrollably.

"I came for more alcohol. Load me up woman!" Gabriella yelled loudly as she stumbled over and leaned on Erin for support. That wasn't a very good idea considering Erin couldn't hold herself up very well. They both fell to the ground and starting laughing hysterically.

"Hey at least the alcohol didn't spill!" Erin yelled as she held up the bottle triumphantly.

"Thank God for that!" Gabriella yelled in response as she reached for the bottle and poured her own shot.

"You're just lucky you're my friend Bambi. I would have beaten any other bitch for doing what you just did." Erin said laughing, referring to Gabriella taking her alcohol.

"Well good thing I'm not any other bitch!" Gabriella said as she threw back two more shots, taking both while still sitting on the ground with Erin.

Troy started walking over to them and Erin tried to stand up to greet him.

"Baby! I haven't seen you all night! Have you been hiding from me?" Erin yelled as she attempted to stand up and fell into Troy's arms.

"I've been hanging out closer to the van while you ran around the whole place handing out drinks to everyone." Troy said laughing, holding Erin up.

"I didn't hand one out to you!" Erin said, sounding like she had just realized something terrible. She made an attempt to go for the alcohol, but failed miserably.

"No I'm driving you and taking care of your drunk ass remember?" Troy said smiling down at Erin.

"Oh right! You can't have any!" Erin said pointing her finger in Troy's face. 

While all of this was going on Gabriella was trying to get up slowly so she could walk away without having to talk to Troy. For some reason she was really angry with him right now. She thought she had almost pulled it off, but then realized she'd barely moved from the spot she started in.

"Hey Brie, stop. Let me help you before you fall and hurt yourself." Troy said noticing the trouble Gabriella was having getting up. He started to move towards her until she put her hand up to stop him.

"I can do it on my own, thanks." Gabriella said coldly as she finally managed to stand up, only to stumble and almost fall over the minute she was standing. Troy rushed to her side and helped her up before she fell over again.

"Yeah I can see that champ, but how about you let someone help you before you hurt yourself ok?" Troy said gently, not wanting to upset Gabriella.

"I'm fine." Gabriella said, pulling away from Troy and walking away. Troy followed closely behind her. He was not about ready to let her walk away from him that easily.

"Hey! What's going on with you? We were having a good time and then all of the sudden you snapped." Troy said as he caught up to Gabriella and grabbed her arm, making her face him. 

"Nothing is going on with me, and I didn't snap. I just don't like being told what to do. I can take care of myself babe, I'm a big girl." Gabriella said before turning around, trying to walk away, but not being able to move from the place she was in. She couldn't leave him like that.

"I'm sorry. I just don't want you to get hurt ok? I'm trying to look out for you. I didn't know you'd get so upset about it. I just care about you, ok Brie?" Troy said, looking down. Gabriella could tell she had hurt his feelings. She knew that was kind of her intent when the words first came out of her mouth, but now when she thought back on them, that wasn't what she wanted at all. 

Gabriella turned around and stood face to face with Troy. She walked closer to him, eliminating any space between them. She wrapped her arms around his waist, got on her tip-toes, and before she knew it she was kissing him. 

**A/N: Hey guys! So I made this one really long to make up for the fact that the other one was really short, and I haven't posted in awhile. Sorry to leave you at a cliffhanger, but you'll have to deal! Lol and I'd like to give a special thanks to Erin for being, well, amazing! Ha I don't think I'd ever get these things written without you! Well I hope you all enjoy the chapter, and please review! I love to hear from you!**


	15. Chapter 15

"What are you doing?" Troy said as he pulled away a little to look into Gabriella's eyes.

"Would you just stand still?" Gabriella said as she cocked her head to the side and then went in for another kiss. 

Troy told himself he wouldn't kiss her again that night, but when she came in for their second kiss he couldn't help but succumb to it. This was all he had been thinking since the first time he spotted her from across the store. It felt so right to him, but he knew he couldn't let it continue happening. He pushed Gabriella away, breaking their kiss. Troy looked down at his feet, but his hands still lingered on her shoulders.

"What the hell?" Gabriella said, looking hurt. "Was it me? Am I a bad kisser?" Gabriella said, going through every single thing that might have caused him to pull away, and then saying, horrified as she put her hand to her mouth, "Oh my god, does my breath smell? I'm so sorry!"

"No! That's not it at all. In fact, you were a really great kisser, it's just…" Troy said, still looking at his feet.

"Dean, right?" Gabriella said, anticipating what he was going to say next. "Troy, don't worry about him. I feel more of a connection with you then I ever have with him."

"Ah, Brie, you know hearing you say that makes me so happy, but I can't do this. You're still with him, which means you're not available. When you are single, believe me, I will be all over you." Troy said, causing both of them to laugh a little.

"Good to hear. You know you're a really good guy Troy Bolton. I'm glad to have you in my life, even if all I wanna do right now is jump you and I can't" Gabriella said, laughing.

"So we're good?" Troy said, starting to go in for a hug.

"Yeah, we're good Sparky. Just promise me something, please?" Gabriella said, looking pleadingly into Troy's eyes.

"Anything." Troy said confidently, as he returned Gabriella stare.

"Promise me that you won't go anywhere. People always leave." Gabriella said, starting to tear up.

"Gabriella, I promise you. I am not going anywhere. You're stuck with me from now on." Troy said, nudging her, trying to get a laugh out of her. It worked.

"Oh great! Now what have I gotten myself into!" Gabriella said as she pushed Troy away, jokingly.

"Stop, you know you love me." Troy said as he pulled Gabriella into a hug. While they were still hugging, Erin walked over.

"Troy, baby! What are you guys doing?! You two kind of disappeared on me before!!" Erin yelled as she fell started to fall into Troy's arms, making him let go of Gabriella.

"Sorry. But it looked like you were having fun without us anyways." Troy said, laughing. Erin started hugging Troy tighter before she suddenly bent over and began vomiting.

"Oh shit!" Troy said, quickly bending over with her to help hold her hair back. He held her until she seemed to be done and then stood back up. He brushed the hair out of her face and repeatedly asked her if she was ok, and if there was anything he could get her.

Troy looked at Gabriella and gave her a shrug, smiling. Gabriella continued to stare at him. He was so loving. She had never seen a guy take care of someone like this before. Guys were usually the ones who ran from any sign of trouble or commitment. She tried to imagine the last time Dean had taken care of her like that, but for some reason couldn't think of anything else but Troy. She wanted him in her life as more than a friend, but she knew she had to make some changes in her life first. She decided right now was the perfect time. She pulled out her cell phone.

She began dialing a very familiar number to her, but for some reason she hadn't called it in weeks. She remembered that Dean was actually the one who had something to do with that. He didn't like Amy because he thought she was also, like Sharpay, "no good for her." The phone rang a few times.

"Hello?" a very tired sounding Amy answered.

"HEY BABY!" Gabriella shouted, a little bit more excited and a little louder than she had intended.

"Gabriella? What the hell? Why are you calling me so late after not talking to me for like 3 weeks?" Amy answered, sounding a little pissed off.

"Amy, I'm so sorry. I wanted to call you, but Dean wouldn't let me. He kept saying that you weren't good for me, but I've decided that I'm getting rid of him and I wanted you to be the first to know about my new guy." Gabriella said.

"Wait what? Slow down. Dean told you not to call me, you're breaking up with him, and you've already got a new guy?" Amy said, starting to sound more awake.

"Yes! I'm breaking up with Dean right after I'm done talking to you. And my new guy's name is Troy! Wanna talk to him?" Gabriella said, starting to walk back towards Troy.

"Gabriella, listen to me. You're drunk. Do not call Dean and break up with him while you're drunk. Wait until tomorrow. Ok?" Amy said slowly, hoping that Gabriella would understand her.

"But I want to break up with him now. I want to kiss Troy, and he won't kiss me until I'm single." Gabriella said, realizing that the alcohol was making her say stupid things, but not able to stop herself from rambling.

"Gabriella, please. I'm your best friend. Wait until tomorrow ok? If this guy, Troy, is good enough for you he won't mind waiting another day to kiss you." Amy said, wishing something she said was getting through to her.

"Ugh, I don't want to wait Amy!" Gabriella said, starting to whine loudly so everyone around her could hear, including Troy.

"Gabriella. Wait." Amy said forcefully, knowing her best friend would only listen if she was forceful. Gabriella didn't like to take direction when she was drunk, she was a free spirit.

"Fine. But only because I love you!" Gabriella yelled, causing Troy to run over to her.

"You're not on the phone with Dean are you?" Troy said worriedly as he started taking the phone from Gabriella.

"No! I'm on the phone with my best friend Amy. Dean wouldn't let me talk to her because he didn't like her. You wanna talk to her?!" Gabriella said, handing the phone to Troy.

"Uh hello?" Troy heard Amy saying on the other end of the line.

"Hey Amy, this is Troy. Gabriella's a little drunk right now, I'm really sorry she called you so late. I'll make sure she calls you back tomorrow though ok?" Troy said calmly, while trying to hold Gabriella up.

"Thanks Troy, but I have a few questions to ask you. One, who are you? Two, why does Gabriella want to kiss you? And Three, why is my best friend about to dump her boyfriend of 12 years suddenly because of you?" Amy said, angrily. She was scared Troy was taking advantage of Gabriella while she was drunk.

"I'm Troy Bolton, I go to East High and I'm on the basketball team. Gabriella wants to kiss me because, well I can't answer that one for her, and she wants to dump Dean because he isn't good for her. He tries to control her and he isn't supportive of anything she does. Does that answer everything?" Troy said, remaining calm, not wanting to piss off Gabriella's best friend.

"Whoa whoa whoa, Troy Bolton? I know you!! It's Amy Meyer!!" Amy shouted into the phone, excited that she actually knew Troy.

"Wait, Amy Meyer from basketball camp in Denver?" Troy said. Gabriella turned to look at him surprised that he knew her best friend. She lunged to take the phone from him, but missed and almost fell over.

"Ah, shit. Brie, be careful. Listen Amy I have to go, but it was nice talking to you again! I'll make sure Gabriella calls you tomorrow." Troy said before hanging up the phone.

"Hey, Brie, we need to head back to the van. I already have Erin in there. I'm going to put you in and then go find Sharpay ok? Let's go." Troy said, picking up Gabriella the exact same way he had the night before. He hoped that this wouldn't become tradition. He loved being this close to her, but didn't like the fact that she was drunk everytime it happened.

"Okey Dokey Smokey!" Gabriella yelled, followed by a fit of giggles. She hugged Troy tighter as he carried her back to the van where Erin was sitting by the window, waving at them both excitedly. Troy must have told her she had to sit there and couldn't come out otherwise she would have been trying to get out.

Troy opened up the door and placed Gabriella inside, before reaching out and grabbing her hand.

"Stay here ok? Don't get out of the van. I'm going to go and get Sharpay and I'll be right back." Troy said as he continued to hold Gabriella's hand.

"Ok! Erin and I will just party it up in here for awhile. By the way, Sharpay's over by the bonfire with Shawn. I don't like him. Get her away from him ok?" Gabriella said, the alcohol making her more blunt than usual.

"Alright you got it Brie. Thanks." Troy said, laughing as he shut the door and walked towards Sharpay.

"OH MY GOD YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE HIS HOT BABIES SOMEDAY!!" Erin yelled as she quickly turned around and pointed at Gabriella. "TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON WITH YOU TWO RIGHT NOW!"

Gabriella started laughing hysterically for a few minutes with Erin before she finally calmed down and looked at her. 

"I think I'm falling for him Erin." Gabriella said, while Erin squealed. "And there isn't a damn thing I can do about it."

Erin stifled her giggles, "Oh my god. You two are going to have angry sex one day…oh dear god that's hot!"

"Angry sex?" Gabriella through her giggles.

"Yes ma'am. Let me tell you….so HOT!" Erin exclaimed. Troy opened the door holding up a tipsy Sharpay, "Troy! Tell Bambi that angry sex is effing HOT!" Erin yelled.

"Yes Erin." Troy offhandedly said trying to help Sharpay into her seat.

"YES! ANGRY SEX FOR THE MOTHER FUCKIN' WIN!" Erin screamed throwing her hands up in the air causing Gabriella to fall out of her seat with laughter.

"Erin! Inside voice." Troy said helping Gabriella into her seat.

"Oh right" Erin said whispering before going into a fit of giggles.

"Oh dear God what am I going to do with you three?" Troy asked shaking his head.

"Well there are three drunk girls and you…I wonder?" Erin said sarcastically.

"Erin." Troy said getting her attention.

"Yezzir?" Erin said before giggling.

"Shut up!" Troy said laughing before closing the door to the car.

Troy climbed into the driver's seat and turned the key, bringing the engine to life. He started back down the bluff, and headed towards Gabriella's house first.

"Erin are you staying at my house again tonight?" Troy said. He got no response, so he repeated his question. 

"Hun, she's passed out." Sharpay said as she glanced back at Erin. When she looked back, she noticed that Gabriella was also passed out. 

_She looks so happy_ thought Sharpay, as she smiled to herself, knowing what was making Gabriella so happy. She then glanced over at Troy, who was staring straight ahead. Even though he was concentrating on driving, she could still see that sparkle in his eyes. The sparkle that seemed to have been gone forever after her sister, Christy, died. Sharpay decided right then and there that she was going to stop at nothing to get these two together. They might not realize how much they need each other, but she did.

"Troy, you need Gabriella." Sharpay said, firmly as she looked at Troy. Troy glanced over at Sharpay, and gave out a tiny laugh.

"Oh really? And what makes you say that Sharpie?" Troy said, hoping that by calling her Sharpie, she'd go off subject and forget about her previous statement.

"She brings back the sparkle, Troy. I missed that sparkle." Sharpay said, not falling for his distraction.

"Sparkle? What sparkle? Sharpay I think you're drunk, just go to sleep ok?" Troy said, continuing to look at the stretch of road in front of him.

"You know I'm not drunk, and you know what sparkle I'm talking about. The sparkle you had with Christy. Everyone saw it, and everyone can see it now. You need her Troy. Even if you don't see it yet… you need her." Sharpay said, never wavering in what she was saying. Talking about Christy was still hard for her, but she wanted to get her point across. She wanted Troy to be happy.

"Sharpay…" Troy said, taking a deep breath. "Even if I do "need her", it doesn't matter because she will never feel that much for me."

"Troy David Bolton. I can personally vouch for the fact that she needs you just as much as you need her. I watch you two together; I talk to both of you. I hear what both of you have to say about the other one. I see it, even if neither of you do." Sharpay said as she reached over and grabbed Troy's hand. "I refuse to give up on the two of you, and you shouldn't either." 

"Sharpay…" Troy said, letting out another long sigh.

"No don't say anything. I'm done. I said my piece, now it's up to you two." Sharpay said, pulling her hand from Troy's and lifting her hands up in the air as to say that she was officially done.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Troy finally pulled into Gabriella's driveway. He turned around to look back at Erin and Gabriella both peacefully passed out. 

"As creepy as this sounds, I could watch her sleep forever. She just looks so beautiful and peaceful, you know?" Troy said, turning to Sharpay.

"Ew you're such a creeper Troy!" Sharpay said as she slapped Troy's arm, before flashing him a smile. "You better get that girl in there before her mom comes home."

"She's not home right now?" Troy asked curiously.

"Nah, her van isn't here. Gabi said if the van isn't here, that means her mom isn't home. Plus she said her mom is at the office until 3 in the morning sometimes, which is lucky for you." Sharpay answered matter-of-factly.

"Very true. Can you get the keys from her purse for me? I feel weird searching through a girl's purse." Troy said, looking at Sharpay with pleading eyes.

"Ugh, you're such a wuss. Fine." Sharpay said before she grabbed for Gabriella's purse. She rummaged through it for a few seconds before pulling out a set of keys on a pink lanyard. "Here, you big baby."

"Thanks." Troy said, grabbing the keys and getting out of the van. He walked back and slid open the door. He grabbed Gabriella's legs first, and then put her arms around his neck, making it easier for him to carry her. As he was going up the walk, Gabriella started to stir.

"Troy?" Gabriella said, half asleep.

"Yeah. We're almost inside, just go back to sleep ok?" Troy said soothingly.

"Okay. But Troy?" Gabriella said again.

"Yeah Brie?" Troy answered, fumbling with the keys, trying to open the door while still holding Gabriella in his arms.

"I like you." Gabriella said, as she reached up and touched Troy's cheek. "A lot."

"Thank you" Troy said laughing, "now go back to sleep ok?" He finished, trying to ignore the flips his stomach was doing. He finally got the door open and walked upstairs to the room that he remembered to be Gabriella's. When he was in her bedroom, he laid her down on the bed, took her shoes off, and covered her up. 

"Go to sleep ok? I'll call you tomorrow to see if you're ok." Troy said, bending down to give her a kiss on the forehead. He started to get up off the bed to walk away when Gabriella grabbed his hand.

"Can you stay until I fall asleep?" Gabriella said, not letting go of Troy's hand. "Please?"

"Sure, Brie, anything you want." Troy said as he sat back down and tucked her in some more.

Gabriella stared at Troy, not wanting the moment to end, and fighting off sleep as long as possible. Troy stared back at her, watching her eyes slowly shut as she drifted off to sleep. He wished he didn't have to leave her, but when her hand slowly started to loosen its grip, he stood up.

"I like you too Gabriella." He said, bending over to kiss her on the forehead. 

He stared at her for a few more seconds before heading back downstairs. He locked the door and headed towards the van. Everything seemed to be a blur to him. Troy decided that Sharpay was right, he did need her.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it took FOREVER to get this new chapter up. I've been so busy with school and such that it was hard to find time to write. This chapter is more of a filler chapter and stuff before I get into any real "action". I hope you like!! Read and REVIEW please!! Love ya!**

Gabriella woke up the next morning to the sound of her neighbor's dog barking incessantly. She sat up to get out of bed and immediately fell backwards. Her head felt like it was about to explode.

_What the hell happened last night?_ Gabriella thought as she pulled the covers back over her head. Right when she was about to drift into hibernation her cell phone started ringing. She debated letting it go to voicemail for awhile, but then decided against it.

"Hello?" Gabriella answered, trying to sound awake, but failing.

"Well hello there! How are you feeling today love?" Amy's voice rang through earpiece louder than Gabriella would have liked.

"Oh Amy it's you. Thank God." Gabriella answered, immediately stopping the "awake" act. "I feel like shit! Why in the hell did I drink so much? I never drink that much"

"I'm not going to lie, you were pretty funny last night though. Oh and you need to tell me about you and Troy. I can't believe you know him!" Amy said, laughing.

"His aunt did some catering for my mom and we've just been hanging out the past few days. He's just a good friend I guess." Gabriella said, closing her eyes and trying to make the pain behind her eyes go away.

"That's not what you said last night…" Amy said in a sing-song voice.

"What did I say last night?" Gabriella asked apprehensively, not really remembering much from her conversation with Amy.

"You told me you wanted to break up with Dean, you were actually going to do it last night on the phone, but I stopped you. And you said you wanted to kiss Troy, and that you wanted him hardcore." Amy said before adding "Ok well I added the last part about wanting him hardcore, but you get the picture."

"Thanks, bitch." Gabriella said let out a scoff before turning serious. "Oh my god I can't believe I was going to call and break up with Dean last night."

"You were really serious about it too. Gabs, how come you haven't told me about any of this stuff before? I thought we were best friends." Amy said, the original feelings of hurt coming back to her.

"Because I'm a horrible friend, and I suck. But it doesn't matter; I'm going to explain it all now in the short and sweet version, if that's ok?" Gabriella answered, feeling bad about the past few weeks she'd ignored Amy.

"Lay it on me." Amy said.

"Ok, so Dean and I are having problems because he's getting jealous of Troy and he's just being really controlling and I'm finally starting to realize that he's just a crutch for me. I'm relying on him because he's the only constant in my life right now. And then I met the catering crew and they showed me that I don't need Dean to make my life complete. They're turning into really great friends, Amy. I think you'd love them. Their names are Sharpay, Erin, and Troy." Gabriella answered, trying to avoid talking about Troy even though she knew it would be the next question coming from Amy.

"I already know Troy, hun. And that's all super and stuff, but I wanna know what is going on with you and Troy. You were really adamant about breaking up with Dean and going with Troy last night." Amy said, keeping calm, knowing her friend would tell her everything in her own time, she just needed a little pushing.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Um, well…" Gabriella answered, trying to stall. She decided that Amy was her oldest and best friend, she was going to tell her everything. "You better be ready for this because it's about to get a lot more complicated ok?"

"Baby I was born ready. Now hurry up and spill!" Amy said, as she continued urging her friend.

"I think I like Troy..." Gabriella said.

"Well of course." Amy said, laughing. "Continue."

"But, I have Dean still, and I'm not sure if I should break that off yet. He's a good guy and he's always been there for me. He's been a great boyfriend too, which makes it hard. Then there's Troy. He has a semi-girlfriend who moved away, and a girlfriend he had for years who just died from cancer 6 months ago." Gabriella said, realizing how complicated it all really was.

"Wow. I just… wow." Amy said, honestly not knowing how to respond to that.

"I told you it was complicated." Gabriella said.

"That is complicated! But we can figure this out. We've always been able to figure out the drama we've gone through. I'm coming over ok?" Amy asked, already getting up to get her keys.

"Please do." Gabriella said laughing. "I'm still really hung over though so be warned, I may be cranky."

Gabriella hung up the phone, and lay in bed for a few more minutes. She knew she needed to get up and shower, but at the moment it just wasn't happening. After about 10 minutes there was a knock on her bedroom door.

"Come in." Gabriella groaned turning over with the covers still on her head. She heard the door open and suddenly felt somebody jumping on top of her.

"Hello starshine!! The earth says hellooooo!!" Amy screamed as she continued jumping on Gabriella. That was her phrase to wake Gabriella up ever since they were little. It had annoyed Gabriella at first, but now she was so used to it, it was like a normal routine.

"Get off… and tell the earth I say screw you." Gabriella said crankily, turning around and smiling at her best friend before sitting up and attacking her in a hug.

"I missed you boo!!" Amy yelled as the two girls hugged. It had only been 3 weeks, but it felt like eternity for two best friends.

"Promise me we'll never go without talking to each other for more than, oh…10 minutes? Sound good? Thought so." Gabriella said, still not letting go of her friend.

"Sound good to me!" Amy answered before breaking their hug and pulling back to look at Gabriella. "Now we have some serious problem solving to do. You go take a shower, and I'll make you hangover food and then we'll talk ok?"

"Okay!" Gabriella said jumping out of bed, and realizing that it probably wasn't a good idea to get up so fast. She stumbled a little for the door, but finally made it into the bathroom and turned the water on.

When Amy heard the shower start she headed downstairs to start the Macaroni and Cheese. Mac and Cheese has always been Gabriella and Amy's hangover food since the first time they had ever gotten a hangover.

Amy was in the process of adding the butter and milk when she heard Gabriella's phone ringing. She ran upstairs to answer it, knowing that Gabriella was still in the shower. After a few seconds of searching, she found the phone and answered before checking the caller ID.

"Hello?" Amy answered.

"Who the hell is this?" a girl's voice replied.

"Um, you called this number. Who the hell is this?" Amy answered, starting to get angry at the rude caller.

"This is Sharpay. Did I call the wrong number?" Sharpay asked, sounding confused.

"Oh, Sharpay! Gabriella's been talking about you. Hey, this is Amy; I'm one of Gabriella's friends. Sorry, she's in the shower right now, but I can have her call you back?" Amy asked.

"She doesn't need to call me back, I was just calling to see how she was doing. I thought she might not be feeling too well." Sharpay laughed.

"Well you got that one right. She's in the shower right now, and I'm making her mac and cheese so hopefully after that she feels better." Amy replied, laughing too. "If you wanted to come over I'm sure she'd be fine with it."

"Thanks, but no it's fine. I've been stuck with her for two days, you take her!" Sharpay said jokingly. "Just tell her I called to say I hope she feels better, okay?"

"Okay I will. I'm sure she'll appreciate that you called. Nice talking to you." Amy said.

"Nice talking to you too! Hope to meet you sometime. Have fun with the mac and cheese!" Sharpay said as they both hung up the phone. Just then Gabriella walked in, her pajamas back on and her wet curls all over the place.

"Who was on the phone?" Gabriella asked, rubbing her wet hair with a towel.

"Sharpay, she just wanted to call and see how you were feel-" Amy answered, before she was cut off by Gabriella's phone ringing again.

"Someone's popular! It's Erin." Amy said handing the phone to Gabriella.

"Hello?" Gabriella answered quickly, rolling her eyes at Amy.

"Hey, uh I'd like to order for takeout. I'll have pepper steak and some white rice." Erin said, groggily, definitely sounding worse than Gabriella.

"This isn't-" Gabriella tried to answer before getting cut off by Erin.

"Listen dude, I've got one hell of a hangover and all I want right now is some damn Chinese food so will you please just take my order and bring me my food?" Erin said, sounding annoyed. "Oh, and an eggroll!"

"Erin, it's Gabriella." Gabriella said, laughing.

"What the-? Since when do you work at Golden China? You're not Chinese you're Mexican! Oh does this mean I get free food?" Erin asked, sounding incredibly confused.

"You called my cell phone Erin. This isn't Golden China." Gabriella said, still laughing. This was making her completely forget about her own hangover. "You dialed the wrong number hun."

"Damnit." Erin said before starting to groggily mumble incoherent words, "Fuck! I need to go and get the right number then. I'm like freaking starving. Call me later?" Erin asked.

"You got it. Have fun with the Chinese, that is if you call the right number this time." Gabriella said, teasing Erin.

"Yeah yeah yeah, bite me. Talk to you later." Erin said, before she hung up the phone. Gabriella hung up her own phone and laughed, looking over at Amy. Her laughter subsided when she saw that Amy was just sitting on her bed looking down at her hands.

"What's wrong?" Gabriella asked, already able to tell there was something her friend was thinking, but not saying. She knew her too well for secrets.

"Gabs I've been wondering something…" Amy answered, looking up at her friend. "Why did you drink so much last night? If it was just for fun I understand, I've been there, but if it was because you were trying to forget or escape from something, I wanna know."

"Amy, I don't really want to-" Gabriella said before Amy interrupted her.

"Gabriella, just be honest. We're best friends, you can't lie to me. I know you better than you think, remember?" Amy said with a wink. "Now just tell me."

"I guess I just wanted to have fun and forget about everything bad. Alcohol just seemed like a fun way to do it." Gabriella said. "But really, it was more to have fun than it was to forget about something or avoid it. Don't worry I'm not going to turn into an alcoholic like… well, you know."

"Yeah, well I was just wondering. I know you hate it when I'm a mother, but someone's gotta watch you and your wild ways missy." Amy said, playfully pushing Gabriella. "Now let's go eat some macaroni and cheese before it gets all gross."


	17. Chapter 17

Gabriella woke up in complete darkness, except for the TV emitting flashes of light through the room. She was about to get up and run to turn the lights on, she was afraid of the dark, until she heard someone behind her.

"I thought you'd never wake up." Dean said as he started to drape his arm around her waist.

"What the hell are you doing here? You scared the shit out of me! What the hell are you, Harry Houdini?!" Gabriella exclaimed as she got up and rushed to turn on the lights.

"Whoa, calm down Ella. I stopped over to say hi a few hours ago and you had fallen asleep so Amy said to stay because you'd want to talk to me or something. " Dean said, standing up and walking over to Gabriella. "Why were you taking a nap anyways? You never take naps."

"I can take a damn nap if I want to Dean, why does it matter to you?" Gabriella asked snippily as she crossed her arms and sat down on the opposite couch.

"What is going on with you? I know we got in a fight before, but I didn't really think it'd make you this mad." Dean said as he made a move for Gabriella.

"Don't." Gabriella said, putting her hand up. "I'm still angry with Dean, you can't just stop over and pretend that everything's fine."

"Why don't you understand that I love you and I want you to be happy and not have to deal with any more hurt? I'm your boyfriend, boyfriends are supposed to protect their girlfriends." Dean said, running his hands through his dark brown hair.

"I understand that, and I love you for that, but honestly, I need to do what's best for me. I don't want to do what you THINK is best for me. And yeah boyfriends protect their girlfriends, but what if they're, um…" Gabriella said, trying to think of the best way to phrase what she wanted to say.

"Um, what? Spit it out Gabriella. This whole stuttering nervous thing isn't working for you. If you have something to say, then say it. We've always been honest, at least I have." Dean said, starting to get angry with Gabriella's vagueness.

"What is that supposed to mean? I'm honest with you. I always have been and I always will be. I'm trying to be honest with you right now, but you're not listening so maybe you should shut your mouth for a few seconds, huh?" Gabriella spit out, feeling her blood starting to boil.

Dean put his hands in the air and started to back away. "I'm listening." He sat down on the overstuffed red chair in the corner of the room.

"Well I'm just starting to rethink our relationship. I feel like I use you as a crutch sometimes because you've always been there so I don't wanna lose you, you know?" Gabriella asked rhetorically before continuing. "I feel like that's not the right way to go through life. I need to get out there on my own and see that I can do it independently. I'm not saying this is the for sure end for us, I'm just saying that maybe we should break, for now…" Gabriella finished, looking straight into Dean's teary eyes.

"Please don't do this." Dean said, pleading with Gabriella.

"I'm not doing this to hurt you. And like I said, it's for now, not forever." Gabriella said, walking over to Dean. She started rubbing his back and comforting him, feeling like a mother.

Dean sat in the chair, hunched over, head in hands. His body began to shake when he felt Gabriella's hand rest on his back. He had never been without Gabriella, he wasn't sure if he could really handle life without her. At times, he had even come to the conclusion that she was his life.

"Is that the only reason why?" Dean finally asked, after minutes of silence between both of them. "That I'm your crutch? Or does it have to do with a certain caterer named Troy? Because if it does, I just want to know Gabriella." Dean said, shocking Gabriella with his use of her full name.

Gabriella suddenly stopped rubbing Dean's back. She started getting up off the chair and moving away.

"So what you think I'm a cheating whore now or what?" Gabriella questioned, as she continued backing away towards the door. "Just because I break up with you doesn't mean that there's another guy in the picture."

"Ella you know I don't think you're anything like that. I just want to know. I'm not angry with you and I won't be angry with you if you say yes. I just want to know, that's it. No hidden agenda." Dean said, managing to stay calm. Gabriella was actually surprised at how calm he was being, knowing the temper that Dean had.

"Dean…" Gabriella started, wishing magically the perfect words would come to her. Deciding that would never happen she continued. "I love you. I always will, you know that right?"

Dean nodded, signaling for Gabriella to continue. She took the cue from his nod, took a deep breath, and continued on.

"I am going to be honest with you and tell you that I am starting to feel something for Troy. I didn't plan on it, and I don't plan on doing anything about it anytime soon. I could never do that to you. To us…" Gabriella said, letting out a sigh. "I don't want everything we had, and still have to be forgotten. It was too perfect and special to just disappear."

"I really appreciate you being so mature about this. Most girls would just jump from one guy to the next." Dean said with a laugh. "I will always love you Gabriella. You should know that. And I'm not saying that you don't understand that, I just needed to repeat it."

Gabriella smiled, feeling warmth inside. If there ever was a perfect break-up, it would be this. She knew she would never lose Dean, no matter what happened. Who knew? Maybe someday they'd even make their way back to each other.

"You know I just want you to be happy, and if Troy makes you happy then I say go for it. You deserve every happiness, and don't let something as stupid as my feelings get in the way of it." Dean said, giving Gabriella a wink and a slight nudge on the shoulder.

Gabriella laughed, before looking down. She began to wring her hands, as was her nervous habit since she was a little girl.

"Spill it." Dean said, noticing the nervous habit he'd seen so many times before.

"What?" Gabriella asked, looking up to meet Dean's eyes.

"Don't. I know you better than anyone else and you need to just tell me what's bothering you now." Dean said matter-of-factly.

"Ha, you're right. I forgot who I was talking to." Gabriella said with a laugh. "It's just that… I don't think I can just break off all ties with you, you know? Like I've been with you for so long and you've been my everything almost my entire life. It'd be weird to be without you."

"There's that crutch coming out again." Dean said laughing. "Listen Gabriella, you're never going to lose me. You are my first love and you are my first and last best friend and you always will be. I want us to still be friends, if that's ok with you? I don't think I could handle a clean break away from each other either. " Dean said getting up to walk over to Gabriella.

"Do you really mean that?" Gabriella said, looking up, tears in her eyes. She loved Dean with everything she had. He was the greatest guy she'd ever known, and he was proving that to her right now.

"Of course I do Ella Bella." Dean said, sitting down next to Gabriella, putting his arm around her shoulders. "Best Friends Forever ok?"

"BFF's for life!" Gabriella yelled in a valley girl voice jokingly before turning to flash a smile at Dean. She then leaned in and they shared their last kiss. It wasn't a romantic kiss in any way; it was more of a kiss for closure. They had loved each other for so long that a kiss seemed like the best and only way to complete it.

"Now you go to bed and I'll go home and stop bothering you." Dean said, pulling away, arm still around her shoulder.

"I'm not tired though, I just took a fricken 5 hour nap!" Gabriella said laughing, "I think what I need right now is a little…" She trailed off looking at Dean and smiling wide.

"Enchanted, right?" Dean said laughing, knowing that was Gabriella's new favorite movie. She had forced him to watch it with her multiple times; it was actually starting to grow on him.

"How did you know?" Gabriella said, faking a shocked look. "You wanna watch with me?"

"I suppose. What's one more time anyways?" Dean exclaimed with a laugh as he threw his arms in the air. He got up off the couch and headed towards the DVD player to start the movie, knowing exactly what to do having done it many times before.

"You're the best pooky." Gabriella said laughing before stopping suddenly. She hadn't meant to call him pooky. It was her pet name for him when they were together, but she couldn't use it now. It felt like she was rubbing it in his face.

Dean noticed the look on her face and quickly interjected, "It's fine Gabriella. There's no reason we can't still have names for each other. It's what BFF's do!" Dean said laughing, hoping to alleviate Gabriella's awkward feelings.

"Alright then, pooky it is!" Gabriella said laughing. "Even though I know you hate it." She finished with a wink.

"Well sometimes, but right now I don't mind." Dean said, returning her wink. "Now shut up and sit back because the amazingness of Enchanted is about to begin."

He sat back down on the couch beside her as he had done many times before, but this time things felt different, better almost. What should have felt awkward and wrong, seemed to feel perfect. Gabriella realized that this was what she had been missing all along. They cuddled under her favorite pink blanket together and started watching Enchanted, no romantic ties, and it felt perfect. Just then Gabriella's phone started to ring.


	18. Update

Hey guys! First of all I want to say I'm so soooo sorry about not getting any updates out for, wow I don't even know how long lol. I PROMISE I will be getting one out within the next week. Even if it means ditching other stuff haha. I'm an incredibly busy person, even though school is done. So just expect to have long chapters, but maybe not as often as when I first started.

Once again, I'M SO SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG!! Please don't let it deter you from continuing to read "Truth about Forever" !!

Love you guys! ………. Tricia


	19. Chapter 18

Dean grabbed the phone from the side table next to him and started to pass it off to Gabriella. He glanced down at the caller ID out of habit and instantly regretted it.

"I'm sorry Ella! I didn't mean to look I promise." Dean said instinctively, before turning to see that Gabriella wasn't even paying attention. She was way too wrapped up in the movie to even notice her ringtone blaring at full volume.

"G! Phone." Dean said, once again pushing the phone towards Gabriella, but this time his mood was completely different. He was laughing at her ability to completely tune out everything else when she wanted to.

"Oh sorry!" Gabriella said, coming out of her trance so quickly that she whipped the pink blanket off the both of them and onto the floor. She and Dean shared a laugh before she flipped open the phone to answer, without even looking at the caller ID.

"Hello?" Gabriella answered, still laughing.

"Stop laughing bitch, my head still hurts." Erin said, sounding a little annoyed.

"Well I'm sorry if you can't handle your liquor like some of us… experienced drinkers." Gabriella said, trying to sound as haughty as possible. It worked for a total of 5 seconds before she burst out laughing. She and Erin both knew that if either of them was an experienced drinker, it was Erin.

"Yeah that's right you go ahead and laugh because I know you're just jealous because people love me more." Erin retaliated before softening a bit. "Okay maybe I should say MOST people love me more…"

"Now it's my turn to tell you to shut up." Gabriella said, throwing a nervous glance Dean's way. She wasn't surprised to find that he was totally engrossed in the movie.

_I knew he liked this movie!_ she thought as she smiled to herself.

"Hey, there is no way you can deny it anymore after last night." Erin said, ignoring Gabriella's warning. "You two would be perfect together and you know it."

"Just hold on a sec ok?" Gabriella asked, standing up and walking towards the kitchen. She gave Dean a quick smile and mouthed, "I'll be right back." She waited for him to return her smile and then continued to the kitchen.

"Okay listen, just because I have fun with a guy doesn't mean I like him Erin." Gabriella said, as she absentmindedly looked through the fridge.

"Um, I'm sorry Miss Montez, but do you not remember much from last night?" Erin asked, with a hint of humor in her voice.

"What are you talking about? Of course I remember everything. I got overly drunk like an idiot and Troy took care of me. He put me in the van with you and then… oh crap." Gabriella said, trailing off, remembering what she had told Erin last night.

"Oh crap is right. Your secret's out Bambi. Don't try hiding it anymore!" Erin exclaimed excitedly. "Wait, do you want me to remind you of what happened last night, because I can totally re-enact it for you!" Erin continued, teasing.

"Stop! You're not funny Erin. If you were here right now I'd totally kick your ass and you know it." Gabriella said, slapping her hand to her face.

"Oh please, I can hold my own. Or if I wasn't confident enough in my street fighting skills I'd just bring Troy with me and then you'd go all goo goo eyes on him and I'd be safe." Erin said, laughing.

"You're so hard to love sometimes Erin." Gabriella said, giving in and laughing along with Erin.

"No, correction Bambi, I'm the most lovable person you've ever met! Well, wait…" Erin said, trailing off again and ending with laughter.

"STOP! You're such a whore." Gabriella said laughing "Get a life and stop terrorizing mine loser."

"Well if I had a nice boy toy to keep me occupied I wouldn't be teasing you, so maybe you should think about hooking me up with someone. Hey there's another party tonight! Let's go find boys!" Erin said, starting to get excited.

"Nope. Quit right there. I'm done partying for a couple days Erin. I don't know how you do it!" Gabriella exclaimed.

"Or you could hook me up with that hot boyfriend of yours. Wait, is it ex-boyfriend now?" Erin asked curiously.

"Yes it is ex-boyfriend, but it's way too soon Erin. We broke up like an hour ago." Gabriella said defensively, "Cool the hormones."

"I was just kidding Bambi, calm yourself." Erin answered. "But really, you should bring him to join the group sometime. I bet he'd like it! As long as we keep him away from Troy, of course. I don't want any fights between my boys."

"Dean's not like that. He wouldn't do anything stupid." Gabriella said confidently.

"Well it's settled then. You and Dean are going to be joining the gang at All Star Lanes tonight." Erin said matter-of-factly.

"Whoa whoa wait, I don't know if that's a good idea. It's kind of soon don't you th-" Gabriella began, before getting cut off by Erin.

"Gabriella do you want Dean to be cool with us or not? You may as well start early. We're going to be there at 9 and you better be there." Erin said strongly. She hung up before Gabriella could even get a word in to continue her protesting.

_So… I have an hour to prepare myself for the meeting of my ex boyfriend and my new boyfriend. Wait he's not even my boyfriend yet. I can't just assume he'll want me. And I promised Dean that I wouldn't jump from guy to guy. Oh yeah I can tell already this is going to be fun._ Gabriella thought to herself while she started slowly walking back to the living room, the knots in her stomach already starting to form.

"Hey Dean…" Gabriella said as she started walking into the living room.

"Yeah, Ella?" Dean answered, turning to look at her.

"How do you feel about bowling?" Gabriella asked slowly, hoping he would maybe not want to go and then she wouldn't have to worry about anything.

"I love it! You know that." Dean said, shooting a smile Gabriella's way. "Why?"

"Well Erin just called and she said the group was going bowling tonight and wanted to know if we would go along." Gabriella said before quickly adding "But we don't have to! We can totally keep watching this movie and I'll call Erin right now and tell her we aren't going."

"Ella," Dean said, his smile never fading "of course I'd love to go! I want to meet your new friends. I need to see if they're good enough for you." He said before nudging her arm.

Gabriella smiled at how cooperative he was being. She may have forgotten why she loved him in the past few days, but he was reminding her in every way tonight. Just as she was letting herself feel comfortable she quickly remembered that she didn't want him to go.

"Are you sure? It's not a big deal if we don't go." Gabriella said, sitting down on the couch next to Dean.

"You know I'm starting to get the feeling that you don't want me to go" Dean said, raising his eyebrow in Gabriella's direction. "Are you nervous about me and Troy hanging out? Because I told you I would be cool. I want you to be happy G."

Gabriella sighed loudly before saying, "Actually I was worried about how you're going to look in those bowling shoes. Not a pretty sight my friend…" she said, locking eyes with him before they both started laughing. Dean threw a pillow at Gabriella which insinuated an all out pillow war. After a few minutes of that, Gabriella threw her arms in the air in surrender.

"Hey we have to go soon!" Gabriella yelled, shielding her face with her hands.

"Yeah right, you just don't want to admit that I won." Dean answered before standing up and extending his hand to Gabriella so he could pull her up too. She accepted and jumped up to stand next to him.

"Hm, maybe, maybe not." She said before giving him her trademark smirk and walking towards the door.

"Oh Ella, always trying to be mysterious." Dean said, poking Gabriella in the side.

"Hey I am mysterious!" Gabriella said as she whipped around to face Dean again.

"Okay, sure." Dean said, smiling at Gabriella. He always let her win the arguments. She was way too stubborn to actually concede his way for once. He was used to it by now.

"Great. Now let's go. I want to make sure I get my pink bowling ball!" Gabriella said, skipping towards the door. "You drive ok?"

"Oh you mean the ball that weighs a hefty 8 pounds?" Dean said, grabbing his keys from the table next to the door.

"That very same one." Gabriella said, unashamedly as she marched out the door towards Dean's car. Dean naturally got there before Gabriella because of his long legs, and opened the door for her.

"Thank you kind sir." She laughed as she got inside his car.

"Alright let's go bowling!" Dean said as he got in the driver's side door and started the engine in one fluent motion.

The ride only lasted about 5 minutes due to the fact that the bowling alley was only a few blocks away. However, for the entirety of the short ride there Gabriella couldn't make her thoughts stop racing. She was so happy about how things were going for her right now. She never expected Dean to be so understanding about everything, and for that matter be so willing to meet and hang out with her new friends. Before she knew it Dean was already at her door opening it for her.

"If you're going to spacing out tonight, I think I'm just gunna head in and find me a woman. I need something to keep me occupied." Dean said with a wink as he reached his hand out to help Gabriella out of the car.

"Haha very funny." Gabriella said,taking his hand and rolling her eyes at him "I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me tonight."

"I can think of a few things." Dean said, staring straight ahead as they walked towards the building.

"Oh really? And those things are?" Gabriella said, walking in front of Dean and turning around so she was walking backwards.

"Well, first of all you are thinking about how weird it's going to be for me and Troy to hang out." He said before pausing to look and see if he was allowed to go on. He could tell from her face that she wanted him to continue. "Second, you're wondering if your friends are going to like me. And last, you're wondering how one person, such as myself, can be so amazing. Am I right?" He finished with a smirk.

"Oh wow. You're good." Gabriella said laughing, surprised at how accurate he really was, even if he was joking. "I guess you pick up a few things from each other after being together for a few years huh?"

"Just a couple." He said, grabbing her shoulders and turning her around before she ran into the door. Once again, he opened the door for her and they walked in together. When they were inside the door 

Gabriella looked around to see if she spotted any of the group, but didn't see anyone. Without a word she started walking over to the food counter. When she reached it she turned around to see that Dean already had his wallet out.

"I'm paying for this. What do you want?" She said, pulling out her own wallet.

"Gabriella don't, I'll pay for it. It's not a big deal." Dean said pushing her hands down as she started pulling money out of her wallet.

"It is a big deal. You know how I eat." She said, throwing him another smirk.

"Fine you pay for the food, but I'm paying for the bowling." Dean said, putting his wallet back in his back pocket.

"Good deal son." Gabriella said before turning to check out the menu.

"I'm going to go head over and get us some shoes okay?" Dean asked, already moving towards the shoe area.

"Sounds good to me." Gabriella answered, still looking at the menu. She looked over it a few times, already knowing she would get the same thing her and Dean always got when they came to All Star.

"Alright can I please have two orders of curly fries, a medium cheese pizza, and two cokes?" Gabriella asked the waitress at the counter. The waitress nodded, took her money and gave her a smile and a "thanks" before heading back to put their order in. Gabriella was about to turn around and walk towards Dean when someone grabbed her shoulder.

"That's a lot of food for one person, don't you think?" Troy asked jokingly.

"Well…" Gabriella started, confused. She was kind of surprised that Erin hadn't warned Troy that Dean would be there. She was about to tell him about Dean when Dean decided to make his appearance.

"Two people." Dean said, taking his place at Gabriella's side.

**A/N: Hey guys! I finally found some time to write! I already have some things planned out for the next chapter. Obviously I'll talk about the bowling and everything, but there's a couple other things coming up too. I hope you enjoy the chapter! And I hope it was at least a little worth the wait haha love you guys!!**

**Oh and as always, if you have any suggestions or anything you'd like to happen just send a message my way and I'll be sure to consider it!**


	20. Chapter 19

Dean extended his hand, waiting for Troy to shake it. Gabriella's body tensed up until she saw Sharpay and Erin walk through the door. If anyone could make an awkward situation better it was those two. They were followed by Carrie and Chad. Just as Sharpay was about to interrupt the staredown, Troy extended his own hand.

"Nice to meet you," Troy said, shaking Dean's hand "Formally, that is."

"Nice to meet you too, man." Dean said, as both boys pulled their hands away, ending the shake.

"Well aren't you two just adorable." Sharpay said as she put her arms around both guys shoulders.

"Shut up Sharpie." Troy said, shrugging Sharpay's arm off his shoulder and walking towards the shoe rentals. "I'll be back. Erin, Carrie, I'll get shoes for you too."

"Excuse me? What about me Troy Bolton?" Sharpay said, putting her hands on her hips, looking angry.

"Chad will pay for you." Troy said, not even turning around to face Sharpay.

Sharpay pulled out her cell phone and began texting very rapidly. The next thing she knew Gabriella was getting an incoming text message. She flipped open her phone and realized it was from Sharpay.

_He's pissed because I forgot to tell him about Dean. Don't worry about it, he'll be fine._

Gabriella glanced up and gave Sharpay a look to say "Thanks". She was surprised Sharpay knew her well enough to know she was worried about Troy already. She flipped her phone shut, threw it back in her purse and decided she was going to make tonight enjoyable for everyone, even if it was hard.

"Alright kids, let's get this started!" Gabriella said, wrapping her arms around Erin and Dean and pulling them with her towards the lanes.

Erin leaned over to whisper to Gabriella, "Introduce me you whore!"

Gabriella grinned to herself; she knew that Erin would say something like that. She was pissed at first when Erin had mentioned liking Dean, but now she decided that she didn't have a right to be. He was as much hers as she was his. They were free to date, and like whomever they wanted. She felt oddly liberated by this idea.

"By the way Dean, I need to formally introduce you to my friends." Gabriella said, pulling Dean closer. "This hottie to my right is Erin. She's the best partier I've ever known in my life." She finished, making both Dean and Erin laugh.

"Thanks, the first time I meet Dean and you're making the guy think I'm an alcoholic." Erin said, switching to her flirty voice.

"I don't think that at all. When I hear party I think fun, so the way I see it, you bring the fun. Am I right?" Dean asked, also beginning to flirt. He had also decided that since Gabriella and Troy were pretty much an item, he had to accept that fact that he was single.

"You nailed it." Gabriella said before removing her arms from both of their shoulders and moving forward a few steps, giving them room. "I think Carrie needs some help with those boys. I'll catch up with you guys in a second."

Erin waited until Gabriella was across the room before she turned to Dean and asked him the obvious question.

"So how awkward is it for you right now?" Erin asked, laughing.

"Incredibly." Dean said, laughing too before adding, "Actually it's not that bad. Ella is my oldest friend and I want her to be happy. If Troy makes her happy, then I'm happy. Plus I've also decided that I want to get on with my love life so I'm scoping out chicks tonight. Wanna help?"

"Only if you help me find a hot guy." Erin said, winking at Dean before walking away towards the rest of the group. She left Dean standing frozen, smiling.

"Can we get this game going? I need to get home before Delia starts freaking out about her van. She never lets me drive it and if I mess it up tonight, I'm basically screwed for eternity." Chad said, grabbing his ball and rolling it down the lane before even finishing his sentence.

"Yeah sure Chad, but if you would have waited for 30 more seconds that strike might have counted." Troy said, gesturing at the pins which were now all knocked over. "I don't have the score sheet set up yet."

"Well hurry up! You're so slow sometimes, Bolton." Chad said, punching Troy on the shoulder.

"I'm slow? Should we sit and take some time for a flashback of the basketball game earlier today? I believe it was me beating you 52-24, but my memory is a little cloudy at times. Was that last dunk I had on you 52 or 51?" Troy said teasingly.

"Oh boys, let's stop with the sports fighting, it gets kind of annoying when you've been hearing it for 45 minutes straight." Sharpay said, ruffling both boys hair.

"So you play basketball too, Chad?" Dean asked, trying to make the guys comfortable with him. He knew that neither of them really wanted him there.

"Yeah." Chad answered quickly, not even bothering to look up at Dean.

"Wow Chad, so if we bring a tall, hot guy with us all the time you're only going to give one word answers?" Erin asked sarcastically before turning to Dean. "Would you please accept my invitation to hang out with us from now until forever?"

"Sure. I do cost a bit though so you may want to start saving up now if it's going to be a long term thing." Dean answered, flashing a smile at Erin.

"Honey I never pay for anything, I have more money than you could imagine. The only thing I ever spend money on is alcohol and the only reason I buy my own is so that no one can take it from me otherwise you better believe I'd mooch it off Bambi." Erin said jokingly, turning to smile a cheesy smile at Gabriella.

"Who's Bambi?" Dean asked curiously.

"Oh sorry I forgot. Bambi is our nickname for 'Ella'" Erin said, making quotes around the world "Ella". "Well mine and Sharpay's nickname for her at least. Troy calls her Brie, for some weird reason. I prefer Bambi."

"Brie?" Dean asked, looking at Gabriella, knowing that was what her father used to call her. Dean was never even allowed to mention the nickname, let alone call her that.

"Yeah, but it's not a big deal Dean." Gabriella answered quickly, just imagining the feelings that Dean had about this new revelation.

"Yeah." Dean said, not even wanting to look at Gabriella right now. She had made him feel so bad for calling her Brie so many years ago, that it just made him even more angry that the only one she would allow to call her that was Troy.

"Dean?" Gabriella asked, walking over to Dean's side.

"Yeah?" Dean answered, sounding annoyed, still refusing to look at Gabriella, and instead pretending to do something on his cell phone.

"Can you come with me to my car? I think I forgot something in there." Gabriella asked, pulling at Dean's arm.

"No I'm pretty sure you got everything you wanted Gabriella." Dean said, intentionally throwing a double meaning in there.

"I really do think I left something in there, can you please help me?" Gabriella said, using force now to pull harder on Dean's arm, trying to get his attention.

"GABRIELLA, I have a photographic memory remember? You have everything." Dean said angrily, pulling his arm away from Gabriella's grasp.

"Dean, please." Gabriella pleaded, starting to feel embarrassed about the scene they were causing right now, but not wanting to give up.

Dean finally looked up at Gabriella, and seeing the desperation in her eyes he answered, "Fine."

They walked towards the door together while the entire group watched them with interest. None of them had any idea what was going on. It seemed to them that Dean's mood had changed so quickly, and for no reason at all.

Before they could even reach Gabriella's car in the parking lot, Dean couldn't hold it in anymore.

"What the hell, Gabriella? You never let anyone call you Brie. Not even your own mom! Why does _he_ get to call you that?" Dean exploded, making sure that Gabriella could sense the disdain in his voice.

"Dean, please. It's just a name and it's not like that. He started calling me it and he's a new friend of mine so I didn't want to be rude and correct him. I didn't ask him to call me Brie." Gabriella said, trying to calm Dean down.

"Gabriella, you have never once in your life worried about being rude when you felt strongly about something. You obviously don't care at all if he calls you Brie and I don't understand why that is. Well, wait I guess I do. Someone is a little in love and doesn't want to screw it up, am I right?" Dean asked, pointing a finger at Gabriella.

"Dean stop it. I let him call me Brie because when he says it, it makes me think of my Dad, but in a good way. He makes me think of all the good days with my Dad, not the memory of him lying on in the middle of the road because of me. I'm sorry for being so selfish and wanting that." Gabriella said, opening her car and getting inside. Dean followed her, getting inside the car too.

"Ella I know you miss your Dad, and if this is what helps you cope with everything then do it! Do anything that'll help you! Hell if it makes you feel better, punch me in the face. I'm all game! I just want everything good for you." Dean said, leaning over so he could see into Gabriella's eyes. Gabriella turned to look at Dean, locking eyes with him.

"Thanks pooky." Gabriella said, laughing. She was so glad that this didn't turn into another one of their full blown fights that they were so known for. They both had opinions, was it really their fault if they couldn't keep them to themselves all the time?

"Shut it. Let's go back inside before your boyfriend starts to worry about me stealing you back. He's still intimidated by me, you know that right?" Dean asked, as both him and Gabriella opened their doors and got out of the car.

"Okay for one, he isn't my boyfriend. And two, how can you tell?" Gabriella asked, as they got closer to the door.

"It's kind of a guy thing; it'd be hard to explain. But I'm more than positive that he's still not sure if we're broken up or not." Dean said, opening the door for Gabriella.

"Yeah, but as soon as you and Erin hook up, which EVERY single one of us knows is coming, then he won't be confused about that anymore." Gabriella answered, flashing a smile at Dean and giving him a wink.

"You really think she likes me? I mean I don't wanna make you feel awkward because she's your friend and all and we just broke up." Dean said, putting his hand on Gabriella's shoulder to get her attention.

"Dean, I would love it if you two got together! You have no idea how afraid I was of losing you because you wouldn't like my new friends or Troy. So if you two got together you'd keep all my favorite people in one place. I would be thankful actually." Gabriella said laughing, putting her arm around Dean.

"Good because I was thinking of maybe asking her out tomorrow night." Dean said, also wrapping his arm around Gabriella as they both walked over to the rest of the group.

The group had already started bowling without them so Gabriella and Dean decided to just sit and cheer them on until they finished. Neither of them really felt like bowling that night anyways. The gang only stayed at the bowling alley for a total of two hours before they all were way too tired to even think about another game. Chad volunteered to take all of their shoes back up to the counter while the rest of them headed towards the parking lot.

"Sharpay if you sit in the driver's seat I can guarantee you that Chad will rip that pretty blonde hair out of your head so fast, pulling you out of there." Troy said jokingly to Sharpay.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Fine then, I get shotgun. Erin you get to sit in the backseat with Carrie and Troy, aren't you just so excited?" Sharpay asked, knowing that Erin wasn't even listening to what she was saying. Her and Dean were behind the group talking quietly to each other. Gabriella knew he was asking her out, but she decided to keep it quiet for a bit.

"Okay Erin, let's go. Delia is going to be pissed we kept her van out this late, I don't wanna make it even later just because you are being lovey dovey with Gabriella's ex. Very weird by the way." Chad said, breezing past both Erin and Dean and got straight into the driver's seat.

"I'll see you later Dean. Call me!" Erin yelled as she ran over and hopped into the backseat of the van and shut the door.

When the whole catering crew was in the van, Chad started it up and raced out of the parking lot so fast that Gabriella and Dean hadn't even made it into her car yet.

"Well aren't you two moving quickly." Gabriella said, getting into her car and turning her key in the ignition.

"Yeah I guess so, but I kind of feel drawn to her you know? It's like I can't help but do whatever she wants me to." Dean said. "Is that normal for her? I mean does she usually have guys wrapped around her finger?"

"Honestly, yeah. But that doesn't mean you're just another guy! I know she really does like you. I can tell. It's there babe, don't worry about it." Gabriella said, heading down the road towards her house.

"Okay good." Dean said. They were both silent for the rest of the ride home. They were both going over the same question in their head the entire time. When Gabriella parked in her driveway and shut off the car, Dean decided he needed to ask or it would never be said.

"Is it weird that we're talking about other relationships with each other considering the fact that we literally JUST broke up?" Dean asked.

"You read my mind." Gabriella said, turning to Dean and laughing. "But I don't think so. I think it just means that we have a healthy relationship and only want the best for each other. We're good people. Right?"

"I'm going to just put it out there and say I totally agree with you." Dean said, laughing too. "I was just thinking that if I looked at us through an outside perspective I'd think this was a little weird. But then again, when have we ever been a normal couple?"

"You're right. So we're just going to make this a rule and say we're being completely normal and we have every right to date other people and we _have_ to talk about it with each other too." Gabriella said. "Because I really do love that you and Erin like each other and I wanna help you any way I can. You're my best friend, and I am used to telling you everything!"

"Agreed. Best friends?" Dean asked.

"Forever." Gabriella said, leaning over and crushing Dean in a huge hug.

"Okay good. Now let's get out of this car, I think it permanently smells like McDonalds. You need to lay off that stuff before you start losing your girlish figure Miss Montez." Dean said, before jumping out of the car and running to his own before Gabriella had a chance to hit him.

"Yeah you better run!" Gabriella yelled after him. "I'll see you later Dean, love ya!" She added, before heading into her house. She had just barely gotten inside the house before her cell phone started ringing. She looked at the caller ID and saw Erin's name.

_I can't believe it took her a full 20 minutes to call me._ Gabriella thought, smiling to herself before she flipped open her phone to answer. Before she could say a word Erin cut her off.

"How could you let someone like that go, _just_ for Troy? You have to be nuts!"

**A/N: I am soooo incredibly sorry that it's taken me basically an entire summer to get this chapter out. I work so freaking much that I literally have no free time and when I do it's time to eat or sleep lol no time to think about story plots or ideas. So this is what I've decided to do. I'm leaving it up to you guys. I want YOU to send me your ideas for the story. Let me know what you want to see in here and what you think should happen. Of course I will add my own twist in everything and I will decide which things get in here or not, but I want this to be just as much your story as mine! So send me some PM's and reviews telling me what you want! Thanks sooooo much for reading! LOVE YOU ALL!!**


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